SB1466 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB101 08420 TAE 53490 b

101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
SB1466

Introduced 2/13/2019, by Sen. Cristina Castro

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

820 ILCS 112/10

Amends the Equal Pay Act of 2003. Expands discrimination protection from applying to only African American employees to applying to all employees belonging to a protected class that is based on race, color, national origin, or ancestry. Provides exemptions for payments made under a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, and a differential based on any factor other than race, color, national origin, or ancestry, or another factor that would constitute unlawful discrimination under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning employment.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Equal Pay Act of 2003 is amended by changing Section 10 as follows:

(820 ILCS 112/10)

Sec. 10. Prohibited acts.

(a) No employer may discriminate between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to an employee at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to another employee of the opposite sex for the same or substantially similar work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where the payment is made under:

(1) a seniority system;

(2) a merit system;

(3) a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or

(4) a differential based on any other factor other than: (i) sex or (ii) a factor that would constitute unlawful discrimination under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

No employer may discriminate between employees on the basis of race, color, national origin, or ancestry by paying wages to an African-American employee at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to another employee who is not a member of a protected class that is based upon race, color, national origin, or ancestry African-American for the same or substantially similar work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where the payment is made under:

(1) a seniority system;

(2) a merit system;

(3) a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or

(4) a differential based on any other factor other than: (i) race, color, national origin, or ancestry or (ii) a factor that would constitute unlawful discrimination under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

An employer who is paying wages in violation of this Act may not, to comply with this Act, reduce the wages of any other employee.

Nothing in this Act may be construed to require an employer to pay, to any employee at a workplace in a particular county, wages that are equal to the wages paid by that employer at a workplace in another county to employees in jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

(b) It is unlawful for any employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of or the attempt to exercise any right provided under this Act. It is unlawful for any employer to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any individual for inquiring about, disclosing, comparing, or otherwise discussing the employee's wages or the wages of any other employee, or aiding or encouraging any person to exercise his or her rights under this Act.

(c) It is unlawful for any person to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any individual because the individual:

(1) has filed any charge or has instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this Act;

(2) has given, or is about to give, any information in connection with any inquiry or proceeding relating to any right provided under this Act; or

(3) has testified, or is about to testify, in any inquiry or proceeding relating to any right provided under this Act.

(Source: P.A. 100-1140, eff. 1-1-19.)