In 2025, almost 300 new Illinois or Chicago-area laws have gone into effect, including pay transparency for jobs, easier gym membership cancellations and mobile ID driver’s licenses.
A bill signed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2023 now requires employers with 15 or more employees to include pay scale and benefits information in job postings, a move to provide increased transparency in hiring efforts. Complaints about postings without that salary and benefit information can be filed with the Illinois Department of Labor within one year.
Illinois is also making it easier for residents in 2025 to cancel gym memberships. Now, residents can cancel gym memberships via email or on their gym’s website, as opposed to having to cancel in person or other methods often found unnecessarily difficult.
Another state law now in effect is one allowing residents to have a digital version of their driver’s license or state ID, instead of a physical one. However, according to CBS News, when required by law or requested by a police officer, one might still have to show a physical ID.
Despite national turmoil over reproductive rights, in Illinois, a new law prohibits discrimination based on reproductive health decisions, including those related to abortion, fertility treatment, birth control, miscarriage care, or pre- or post-natal care.
“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, and opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” Pritzker said at a news conference in Chicago after the 2024 general election. “You come for my people, you come through me.”
Similarly, HB 2350 requires Illinois companies that provide insurance to cover annual prostate cancer screenings or cervical smears for all those insured, regardless of gender.
In Oak Park, catalytic converter thefts are often littered across daily police reports. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in June 2023 that more than 17,000 catalytic converters were stolen from 2019 until then, and the thieves are almost never caught.
But now, a new law requires metal or scrap dealers to keep records of the vehicle identification numbers of cars where catalytic converters were removed. It requires these dealers to acquire a copy of a seller’s ownership of the vehicle in catalytic converter transactions. This is intended, according to CBS News, to prevent thieves from selling catalytic converters, thus reducing enticement to steal them.
Any renters concerned about retaliation from the landlord has a new safeguard, too. Pritzker signed the Landlord Retaliation Act, which guarantees that landlords cannot penalize a renter for reporting code violations for living conditions or illegal activity.
That means a landlord cannot knowingly increase rent, threaten a lawsuit or terminate a lease in response.
Police officers or members of self-insured fire protection districts, or spouses of those individuals, will now have increased access to mental health therapy services. HB 4460 requires insurance companies to provide coverage. Similarly, a police officer now cannot be fired for a mental or physical disability that is the basis for their benefits application.
Yet another new law requires businesses that offer a free trial, such as a streaming subscription service, to notify customers at least three days before the automatic renewal at a paid rate. This only applies, according to ABC7 Chicago, to subscriptions longer than 15 days.
Other new laws include requirements for school districts to provide students at least 20 minutes a week for relaxation activities, waiving fees for veterans to adopt a dog or cat from an animal shelter, and all state-owned buildings must have an adult changing station.
The Illinois Municipal League outlines other laws taking effect in 2025 related to the environment, municipal governance, property taxes, public works and utilities online.
