Near the beginning of each year we circulate the firm’s updated employment law brochure, The Employment Law Minefield. The brochure describes various federal and state statutes that affect employers and employees. When reviewing the brochure, our readers should note that certain discrimination statutes apply only to employers that employ a minimum number of employees; for example, Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Illinois Human Rights Act, has a 15-employee threshold; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act has a 20-employee threshold; and the Family and Medical Leave Act has a 50-employee threshold. These employee thresholds were enacted, at least in part, to relieve small businesses from the administrative costs of complying with these statutes. There are several statutes, however, that apply to even the smallest of employers.
While the employee threshold for the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) is 15, the IHRA’s prohibition against sexual harassment has a single employee threshold, making it applicable to all employers. This is important to all business owners because recent rulings in several discrimination cases require employers to prevent harassment by customers and vendors as well as employees. Accordingly, all business owners, no matter the size, should implement a written sexual harassment policy and procedure that applies to employees, customers and vendors.
The Illinois Equal Pay Act (“IEPA”) applies to employers with four or more employees. The IEPA prohibits employers from paying unequal wages to men and women for doing the same or substantially similar work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility, and are performed under similar working conditions. Thus, even small employers must review their salary structure to ensure that different wage rates paid to employees are the result of sound business reasoning and not an employee’s sex.
Finally, the Illinois Personnel Records Review Act (“PRRA”) applies to employers with as few as five employees. The PRRA requires employers to provide employees with access to their employment files. Accordingly, even small employers should take care to create and maintain employment files for their employees and implement a policy to ensure compliance with the PRRA.
If you have questions about these or other employment statutes, please telephone a member of the firm.