Nearly 300 new Illinois laws go into effect this week. Here are some of the most notable.
CHICAGO — There are close to 300 new Illinois or Chicago-area laws going into effect with the arrival of the new year, and they run the gamut from upping minimum wage and increasing pay transparency for job listings to banning single-use shampoo bottles in local hotels.
While not every law that goes into effect with the beginning of 2025 will have a widespread day-to-day impact on everyone in the state or the Chicago metro area, there are a number of them worth flagging to keep on your radar.
Below are some of the most notable new laws that go into effect starting this week.
New $15 minimum wage
Most hourly workers in Illinois will see a pay increase in 2025.
The state minimum wage will jump from $14 to $15 per hour, for workers 18 years and older, on Jan. 1.
The minimum wage for tipped workers will also increase to $9 per hour. In 2024, tipped employees earned at least $8.40 an hour. Overtime must be paid after 40 hours of work per week at time and one-half the regular rate.
Youth workers under 18 who work fewer than 650 hours per year will see their hourly wage increase to $13 per hour.
In 2024, the minimum wage for non-tipped workers increased to $14 an hour in 2024. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour has not increased since 2009, and it remains the law in 20 states.
Expansions on reproductive rights
Starting Jan. 1, the new law will prohibit discrimination based on a person's reproductive health decisions, such as fertility care and abortion, and extend protections in the Illinois Human Rights Act to ensure Illinoisans can engage in reproductive health decision-making without facing discrimination.
According to the Illinois Department of Human Rights, decisions include a broad continuum of personal decisions regarding assisted reproductive technologies, such as in-vitro fertilization, prenatal, intranatal, and postnatal care, as well as abortion and birth control, fertility or sterilization care, and miscarriage management care. The protections apply across all areas of the act.
Pay/benefit transparency for job listings
The law requires employers with 15 or more employees to include pay scale and benefits information in all job postings. The bill was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2023.
The amendment is meant to provide more transparency to the hiring process by giving prospective employees the opportunity to learn about the compensation and benefits the employer offers for open positions. Employers will also be required to inform current employees about all open job postings if they choose to apply.
Anyone who becomes aware of a posting that doesn't include salary and benefit information can file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor within one year of the alleged violation, including a link, picture, or screenshot of the posting.
The department will notify violators of the complaint and provide a resolution date to resolve the issue.
Catalytic converter theft prevention
Effective Jan. 1, a new Illinois law will require recyclable metal dealers to keep records of the vehicle identification numbers of cars from which catalytic converters in their possession were removed. The dealers must also keep any numbers, bar codes, stickers, or other identifying features on catalytic converters.
The bill also requires scrap dealers to obtain and keep a copy of proof of a seller's ownership of a vehicle in any transaction involving catalytic converters.
The purpose is to prevent thieves or other bad actors from selling stolen catalytic converters to scrap dealers.
Catalytic converter thefts—and sometimes ensuing violence—have been a severe problem in the Chicago area for several years.
Protections for family responsibilities in employment
Caregivers in Illinois will have new protections under Illinois law in 2025.
Illinois workers who provide care to family members will be protected from employment discrimination based on family responsibilities as of January 1.
According to the addition to the Human Rights Act:
"Illinois employers cannot make recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, training, discharge, discipline, or other decisions regarding the privileges or conditions of employment based on an employee or prospective employee's actual or perceived provision of personal care for a family member."
Less than 10 states offer this protection to family caregivers.
As CBS News reported in 2024, across the U.S., family members caring for loved ones provide an estimated $600 billion in unpaid services each year, sacrificing time, money and often their well-being to care for aging loved ones, according to an AARP survey.
Ban on single-use shampoo bottles in hotels
According to the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act, beginning July 1, hotels with 50 rooms or more will no longer be able to provide small single-use plastic bottles containing personal care products (shampoos, conditioners, etc.) to guests who are either in a sleeping room or a bathroom shared by the public or guests.
Hotels will face a business offense with a fine of no more than $1,500 for a second or subsequent violation.
The law will go into effect for hotels with less than 50 rooms beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Limits on landlord retaliation against renters
Illinois renters will gain new protections starting Wednesday, Jan. 1.
The Landlord Retaliation Act, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, ensures Illinois tenants are protected when reporting code violations regarding their living conditions or illegal landlord activity. Landlords cannot penalize a tenant for exercising their legal rights.
Based on the new law taking effect, an Illinois landlord may not knowingly terminate a lease, increase rent, or bring or threaten to bring a lawsuit against a tenant in response to a tenant's complaint.
New law on O'Hare driver safety
A new law aims to curb the practice of drivers idling near Chicago O'Hare International Airport while waiting for travelers' arrivals.
The law prohibits "stopping or standing their motor vehicle on the shoulder of a highway within a one-half mile radius of the eastern entrance of O'Hare Airport or the intersection of Interstate 90 and Interstate 294, unless otherwise permitted."
As reported earlier this year, the new law calls for the installation of a network of cameras to capture the license plates of drivers breaking the law by idling on a highway or onramp and then sending them three-figure fines.
Exceptions will be made for disabled vehicles on the side of the highway.
Funeral home accountability for lost human remains
The Integrity in Death Care Act is intended to help ensure that funeral homes do not lose the bodies of the deceased. It comes after a funeral home in downstate Carlinville delivered the wrong remains to more than 60 different families.
The law requires funeral homes to document a chain of custody—keeping records of where human remains are transported from intake through burial.
The law also comes nearly two years after a van was stolen from a funeral home in Rockford with a body inside. The van was found 97 miles away in Chicago's Calumet Heights neighborhood, and the body of the deceased man inside, Curtis Brown, was found more than two miles away a day later.
Creation of digital IDs
An Illinois law taking effect Jan. 1 allows Illinois residents the option of obtaining a digital version of their driver's license or state ID.
This law allows for a digital ID in addition to, not instead of, a physical ID.
When required by law or requested by a police officer, a physical ID must still be presented.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias was a supporter of the legislation.
Other new laws going into effect
There are hundreds of other laws that are worth checking into from the list of nearly 300 items. Click here to see the entire gamut, or glance below for a brief list of some of the other laws that go into effect in 2025, as outlined by Illinois Senate Democrats.
- SB 1089: Requires the Capitol building and every rest stop along the interstate highway to install and maintain at least one adult changing station.
- SB 2442: Prohibits hospitals from directly billing a patient that is 138% below the federal poverty line.
- SB 2737: Eliminates "do not compete" and "do not solicit" clauses from employment agreements for individuals providing mental health services to first responders and veterans. (SB 2770, meanwhile, "prohibits non-compete and non-solicitation agreements in the construction industry.")
- SB 2872: Requires each school district to provide students, in addition to and not substituting recess, at least 20 minutes a week for relaxation activities.
- SB 3098: Prohibits electronic cigarettes purchased by mail, through the Internet, or other remote sale methods from being shipped to anyone under 21 in the state other than a distributor or retailer.
- SB 3350: Allows the Dept. of Humans Services to establish or authorize programs to dispense and distribute fentanyl test strips to promote harm reduction efforts and prevent overdoses as part of the existing Drug Overdose Prevention Program.
- SB 3571: Requires that an automated external defibrillator (AED) be present at all public schools both during the school day and during school-sponsored extracurricular activities
- SB 3646: Provides a more comprehensive and specific framework for regulating child labor, covering a range of issues (definitions, exemptions, employer requirements, restrictions on employment of minors, employment certificates, civil penalties and criminal penalties).
- HB 1168: Provides that when DNA evidence is collected from a person because the person was a victim of a crime, that specific DNA profile collected in conjunction with that criminal investigation shall not be entered into any DNA database.
- HB 4271: Allows anyone 17 years of age or older to donate blood and have their blood typed without the permission or authorization of their parent.
- HB 4590: Provides that an animal shelter or animal control facility may waive the adoption fee for a dog or cat if the person adopting the dog or cat is a veteran and meets specified criteria.
- HB 4911: Expands the number of ways a customer may cancel a contract for physical fitness services to include by email, if an email address was provided in the contract, or online, if the contract was entered into online.
- HB 5238: Requires that every newly installed manufactured home be equipped with a weather radio supplied by the person who installed the manufactured home.
- HB 5431: Ensures pregnant and postpartum prisoners are made aware their rights, are not forcibly restrained and have access to supplemental nutrition while imprisoned. Also ensures all female prisoners receive a medical screening within 14 days of arrival to a county or state facility.
- HB 5465: Allows a juvenile charge that was a result of human trafficking be expunged from a victims record.
Josh Hernandez contributed to this report.
