Illinois Prevailing Wage Act Labor Law News

There is also another law brewing in the state of Illinois, thanks to the work of the Illinois legislature and the efforts of Governor Rod R. Blagojevich, which protects all employees from not getting paid. This new labor law builds upon a previous Illinois law called the Prevailing Wage Act.

The new law, Public Act 94-0488, increases the penalties for employers who fail to pay their employees properly under the Prevailing Wage Act, which basically covers issues dealing with the minimum wage, overtime, and wage payments in general.

The new law has a lot to do with what we just talked about when discussing contractors and subcontractors who work on public works projects. Basically, the law there is the same as the law here, but this one we’re talking about now covers all employers in the state of Illinois, not just contractors and subcontractors on public workers sites.

As we discussed earlier, the new stiffer penalties for Illinois employers include an increase from 20 percent to 50 percent for the penalty for employers who failed to pay, or underpaid, their employees according to the Prevailing Wage Act. That means that if you get caught as an employer violating the Prevailing Wage Act, you could expect a penalty of up to 50 percent of the wages that you owe the employee, on top of the actual wages themselves. This is for second or third, fourth, fifth, etc., violations of the Prevailing Wage Act.

If a public works contractor or subcontractor is caught violating the Prevailing Wage Act after January 1, 2006, they now face four years where they won’t be allowed to get a public works project again. That is up for 2 years. That figure is for a second time violator who gets that second violation within a five year time period.