New hire reporting — 20-day deadline
Illinois employers must report every newly hired employee, including independent contractors, to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) within 20 days of the employee's first day on the payroll. The report requires the employee's name, address, Social Security number, and date services for remuneration were first performed, plus the employer's name, address, and Federal Employer Identification Number. Employers must also report whether health insurance is available to the employee. Employers transmitting reports magnetically or electronically must additionally provide the employee's date of birth and state of hire.
Source: IDES New Hire Reporting
Criminal history inquiry restrictions — "Ban the Box" timing requirements
Illinois employers with 15 or more employees may not inquire about or consider an applicant's criminal record or criminal history until after the applicant has been determined qualified for the position and notified that they have been selected for an interview. If the employer does not conduct interviews for the position, criminal history inquiries are prohibited until after a conditional offer of employment has been made. This two-stage gate—qualification assessment first, criminal inquiry only at interview or conditional-offer stage—applies to all forms of inquiry: application checkboxes, verbal questions during screening calls, and background-check requests.
The Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, codified at 820 ILCS 75, took effect January 1, 2015. It applies to private-sector employers with 15 or more employees and to employment agencies. The Act does not apply to positions where federal or state law prohibits employment of individuals convicted of certain crimes, positions requiring individuals licensed under the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act, or positions requiring a standard fidelity bond where an applicant's conviction of one or more specified criminal offenses would disqualify the applicant from obtaining the bond.
Qualification determination before criminal inquiry
The statute requires employers to complete a threshold qualification determination—evaluating credentials, experience, skills, and other job-related factors—before any criminal-history topic is raised. Only after that initial screening, and after the employer has affirmatively selected the applicant for an interview (or, if no interview, extended a conditional offer), may the employer ask about criminal history or run a background check. This structure prevents criminal history from being a first-cut filter.
Employers are permitted to notify applicants in writing of specific offenses that will disqualify an applicant from employment in a particular position due to federal or state law or the employer's policy. This advance notice informs applicants of the scope of disqualifying convictions but does not authorize the employer to ask on the application whether the applicant has one of those convictions; the inquiry itself remains prohibited until the interview-selection or conditional-offer stage.
Enforcement, penalties, and remedies
The Illinois Department of Labor enforces the Act. The statute does not create a private cause of action. Civil penalties are structured in four tiers: a first violation results in a written warning that provides notice of the penalties for subsequent violations and gives the employer 30 days to remedy the violation. Subsequent violations within a five-year period trigger escalating monetary penalties. All penalties recovered are deposited into the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Enforcement Fund.
The Act addresses only the timing of criminal-history inquiries during hiring. It does not govern the substantive standards for how employers may use conviction information once disclosed (those standards are set by the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/2-103, which requires an individualized assessment and prohibits blanket exclusions). Employers subject to the Act must comply with both the timing rule in 820 ILCS 75 and the use-of-conviction standards in the IHRA.
Source: Illinois Department of Labor – Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act