Nearly 300 new Illinois laws take effect in 2025
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[December 26, 2024]
By Ben Szalinski
Time to study up, Illinois. When the clock hits midnight on New Year’s
Day, 293 new state laws will take effect.
Those include some of the defining bills of the 2024 legislative session
and others that will change how people get IDs, evaluate job postings
and even cancel gym memberships.
In addition to the laws taking effect on Jan. 1, the state’s minimum
wage will rise to $15 to complete a ramp up initiated during Gov. JB
Pritzker’s first month in office in 2019.
Digital driver’s licenses
The secretary of state can begin creating a process to issue digital
driver’s licenses and state IDs beginning in the new year after Pritzker
signed House Bill 4592. Residents will still be required to receive a
physical ID and agencies or private entities will not be required to
accept digital IDs in place of physical IDs.
Providing a phone to police to show a digital ID also doesn’t give
police consent to search a person’s cell phone.
Salary transparency
Employers with 15 or more employees must include information about
benefits and the salary range on job postings, according to House Bill
3129. The law will also apply to businesses hiring for remote work
positions in Illinois.
“When employers aren’t transparent about pay, gender and racial wage
gaps widen, costing women and people of color valuable compensation,”
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a news release. “Illinois’ new Pay
Transparency law is a resounding win for the working people who call our
state home.”
‘Junk’ health insurance
Short-term, limited duration health insurance plans will be illegal in
Illinois beginning Jan. 1. The plans, often called “junk insurance” by
critics, do not meet the minimum standards of the federal Affordable
Care Act.
The ban outlined in House Bill 2499 was part of Pritzker’s health
insurance overhaul that lawmakers passed in the spring. It was aimed at
reducing barriers to care for patients and making health care more
affordable by expanding coverage requirements for insurance companies.
Short-term insurance plans are typically for people who have a lapse in
health insurance coverage such as when they lose or change jobs, but
they are different from COBRA benefits, which most employers are
required to offer under federal law. Supporters of the bill argued the
plans are deceptive and stick consumers with huge out-of-pocket costs,
but others said the plans provide consumers with an affordable option to
fill a gap in coverage.
Caregiver discrimination
House Bill 2161 adds family responsibilities to the list of categories
protected from discrimination and retaliation in the workplace. The new
law prevents employers from taking adverse action against employees
because of their responsibilities as a caregiver for a family member,
which could cause them to miss work.
Bill sponsor Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, told a House committee in
April that pregnant women are a good example of who the bill is designed
to help. He said pregnant women shouldn’t be passed up for a promotion
or face other consequences at work in anticipation that they will be
taking time off to care for their baby. Guzzardi stressed the bill does
not protect employees who fail to meet job performance requirements.
AI regulations
New laws governing artificial intelligence take effect Jan. 1. It will
be illegal to generate child pornography using AI, according to House
Bill 4623. Supporters of the bill, including the Illinois Attorney
General’s Office, said it is becoming more difficult to distinguish
between real and AI-generated images. They said updating Illinois’ child
pornography laws was a necessary to step allow law enforcement to
identify and prosecute child pornography cases.
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Nearly 300 new laws will take effect in Illinois in 2025. (Capitol
News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
House bill 4875 also adds new protections to prohibit using AI to
recreate a person’s voice, image or likeness for commercial purposes
without the person’s consent. Recording artists can seek damages for
violations of the law.
Politics and religion at work
Employees can’t be required to sit through work meetings discussing
religion or politics starting Jan. 1. Senate Bill 3649, an initiative of
the Illinois AFL-CIO, creates new protections for employees who skip out
on such meetings and prevents employers from retaliating against them.
The law does not prohibit discussing religion or politics at work, but
employees are not required to participate in the discussions if such
activities are not part of their job. The law excludes non-profit and
advocacy groups where politics or religion may be part of job.
Coming later in 2025
Pritzker’s signature health reform package goes into effect on Jan. 1,
but most provisions don’t have to be implemented until the beginning of
2026. House Bill 5395 bans “step therapy,” which requires patients to
try and fail treatments preferred by insurance companies before they can
receive the treatment recommended by their doctor.
It also bans insurance companies from requiring prior authorization for
emergency in-patient mental health treatment, requires insurers to keep
up-to-date lists of in-network providers and expands the power of the
Illinois Department of Insurance to regulate premium rates.
Many hotels in Illinois will no longer be allowed to provide customers
with single-use plastic soap and shampoo beginning July 1 under Senate
Bill 2960. The move is designed to cut down on waste from single-use
products. The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association supported the change.
Hotels with fewer than 50 rooms have until 2026 to make the change.
Other new laws
NIL money: Student athletes at NCAA universities can earn name,
image and likeness money directly from their universities. House Bill
307 was an initiative of the University of Illinois.
Hearing aids: Insurance providers must cover medically prescribed
hearing aids for all people under House Bill 2443. Coverage was
previously only required for those under 18.
Gym memberships: House Bill 4911 requires gyms and fitness
centers to accept multiple ways for people to cancel their membership.
Physical fitness locations also must now allow customers to cancel their
membership by email or online. Customers will also be allowed to submit
written notice for canceling their membership by mail.
Subscription renewals: Businesses that offer a free trial or
promotional period for their product or service must notify customers at
least three days before the subscription automatically renews at a paid
rate under Senate Bill 2764. The law only applies to subscriptions
longer than 15 days.
Crime victim DNA: DNA evidence collected from a person who is the
victim of a crime to aid a criminal investigation cannot be entered into
a DNA database, according to House Bill 1168.
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