Nearly 300 Illinois laws taking effect in 2025 include digital driver's licenses, AI rules, health reform

Time to study up, Illinois. When the clock hits midnight on New Year’s Eve, 293 new state laws will take effect.

Those include some of the defining bills of the 2024 legislative session and others that will change how people get IDs, evaluate job postings and even cancel gym memberships.

In addition to the laws taking effect Jan. 1, another change also will be implemented. The state’s minimum wage will rise to $15, completing a ramp-up initiated during Gov. JB Pritzker’s first month in office in 2019.

Digital driver’s licenses

The secretary of state can begin creating a process to issue digital driver’s licenses and state IDs beginning in the new year after Pritzker signed House Bill 4592. Residents still will be required to receive a physical ID, and agencies or private entities will not be required to accept digital IDs in place of physical IDs.

And providing a phone to police to show a digital ID doesn’t give police consent to search a person’s cellphone.

Salary transparency

Employers with 15 or more employees must include information about benefits and the salary range on job postings, according to House Bill 3129. The law will also apply to businesses hiring for remote work positions in Illinois.

“When employers aren’t transparent about pay, gender and racial wage gaps widen, costing women and people of color valuable compensation,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in a news release. “Illinois’ new Pay Transparency law is a resounding win for the working people who call our state home.”

‘Junk’ health insurance

Short-term, limited duration health insurance plans will be illegal in Illinois beginning Jan. 1. The plans, often called “junk insurance” by critics, do not meet the minimum standards of the federal Affordable Care Act.

The ban outlined in House Bill 2499 was part of Pritzker’s health insurance overhaul that lawmakers passed in the spring. It was aimed at reducing barriers to care for patients and making health care more affordable by expanding coverage requirements for insurance companies.

Short-term insurance plans are typically for people who have a lapse in health insurance coverage, such as when they lose or change jobs, but they are different from COBRA benefits, which most employers are required to offer under federal law. Supporters of the bill argued the plans are deceptive and stick consumers with huge out-of-pocket costs, but others said the plans provide consumers with an affordable option to fill a gap in coverage.

Caregiver discrimination

House Bill 2161 adds family responsibilities to the list of categories protected from discrimination and retaliation in the workplace. The new law prevents employers from taking adverse action against employees because of their responsibilities as a caregiver for a family member, which could cause them to miss work.

Bill sponsor Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, told a House committee in April that pregnant women are a good example of who the bill is designed to help. He said pregnant women shouldn’t be passed up for a promotion or face other consequences at work in anticipation that they will be taking time off to care for their baby. Guzzardi stressed the bill does not protect employees who fail to meet job performance requirements.

AI regulations

New laws governing artificial intelligence take effect Jan. 1. It will be illegal to generate child pornography using AI, according to House Bill 4623. Supporters of the bill, including the Illinois attorney general’s office, said it is becoming more difficult to distinguish between real and AI-generated images. They said updating Illinois’ child pornography laws was a necessary to step allow law enforcement to identify and prosecute child pornography cases.

House bill 4875 also adds new protections to prohibit using AI to recreate a person’s voice, image or likeness for commercial purposes without the person’s consent. Recording artists can seek damages for violations of the law.

Politics and religion at work

Employees can’t be required to sit through work meetings discussing religion or politics starting Jan. 1. Senate Bill 3649, an initiative of the Illinois AFL-CIO, creates new protections for employees who skip out on such meetings and prevents employers from retaliating against them.

The law does not prohibit discussing religion or politics at work, but employees are not required to participate in the discussions if such activities are not part of their job. The law excludes nonprofit and advocacy groups, where politics or religion may be part of job.

Coming later in 2025

Pritzker’s signature health reform package goes into effect Jan. 1, but most provisions don’t have to be implemented until the beginning of 2026. House Bill 5395 bans “step therapy,” which requires patients to first follow the course of treatments preferred by insurance companies; when those fail, they then can receive the treatment recommended by their doctor.

It also bans insurance companies from requiring prior authorization for emergency inpatient mental health treatment, requires insurers to keep up-to-date lists of in-network providers and expands the power of the Illinois Department of Insurance to regulate premium rates.

Many hotels in Illinois no longer will be allowed to provide customers with single-use soap and shampoo in plastic containers beginning July 1 under Senate Bill 2960. The move is designed to reduce waste from single-use products. The Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association supported the change. Hotels with fewer than 50 rooms have until 2026 to make the change.

Other new laws

• NIL money: Student athletes at NCAA universities can earn name, image and likeness money directly from their universities. House Bill 307 was an initiative of the University of Illinois.

•Hearing aids: Insurance providers must cover medically prescribed hearing aids for all people under House Bill 2443. Coverage was previously required only for those under 18.

• Gym memberships: House Bill 4911 requires gyms and fitness centers to accept multiple ways for people to cancel their membership. Physical fitness locations also must now allow customers to cancel their membership by email or online. Customers will also be allowed to submit written notice for canceling their membership by mail.

• Subscription renewals: Businesses that offer a free trial or promotional period for their product or service must notify customers at least three days before the subscription automatically renews at a paid rate under Senate Bill 2764. The law applies only to subscriptions longer than 15 days.

• Crime victim DNA: When DNA evidence is collected from a crime victim in order to aid a criminal investigation, that information cannot be entered into a DNA database, according to House Bill 1168.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois.