Throughout August, Marcus & Boxerman has published a series exploring employer best practices. First, we discussed creating employee handbooks and adopting uniform employment policies, and earlier this week, we detailed best practices employers should use in maintaining employee personnel files. Our final installment highlights some of employers’ most common compliance issues.
Compliance begins with the hiring process. Compliance issues can arise even before an applicant is hired. For example, Illinois recently adopted a “Ban the Box” law, making it unlawful for employers to ask job applicants about their criminal history until the applicant is deemed qualified for the position and extended an interview opportunity or conditional job offer.
Similarly, Illinois employers should not ask about an applicant’s credit history or obtain a credit history report for an applicant, a practice Illinois outlawed in 2011. Employers must verify employment eligibility by requiring employees to fill out a federal I-9 form and state/federal W-4 forms, and need to classify workers correctly as either employees or independent contractors in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Minimum Wage Laws and the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act. Illinois employers must pay adult employees a minimum wage of $8.25 per hour, with limited exceptions for under-18 workers, tipped employees, and employees with certain mental or physical limitations. Some municipalities have adopted a higher minimum wage; the City of Chicago recently increased its minimum wage to $10.00 per hour.
The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act also contains requirements for when, where, and how often wages must be paid, as well as requirements for compensating terminated employees for unused paid vacation time, earned commissions, bonuses and other benefits.
Recent Federal Regulations. In the last 25 years, the federal government has enacted a series of new regulations to accommodate employees with mental or physical limitations (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), to provide job security to employees on leave for family or medical reasons (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993), and to increase employee access to health care (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010). To comply with each in turn, employers must reasonably accommodate employees with physical or mental limitations that impact major life activities; provide job-protected leave for certain family and medical situations; and provide health insurance to at least 95% of the employer’s full-time employees.
Moreover, federal civil rights laws prohibit discrimination in employment decisions based on a number of protected characteristics, as discussed in Part 1 of our Employer Best Practice series. The State of Illinois and many other jurisdictions, including Cook County and the City of Chicago, have expanded protections, and employers should be aware of those well.
While many regulations and standards are common to all employers, appropriate compliance is unique to each employer and often depends on the number of employees and the industry in which the employer operates. For more information on the compliance concerns unique to your business, contact us at (312) 216-2720.