Summary of Chicago requirements^*:

• The City of Chicago requires that all employees receive 1 hour of sexual harassment training every year and that supervisors receive 2 hours. Meeting these requirements will also satisfy Illinois sexual harassment training requirements.
• In addition, employers need to provide an hour of bystander intervention training every year for all employees working in Chicago.
• These requirements went into effect on July 1, 2022, and employers need to meet the requirements annually. The 2024 training deadline is June 30.

The City of Chicago clarified that “The training requirement applies for all employees who work in Chicago, even if remote, and their managers or supervisors, even if the managers or supervisors work outside of Chicago.”

^*Source: CHICAGO, IL, MUNICIPAL CODE ch. 6-10-040 (2022)

Status of the law:

The Workplace Transparency Act was signed by the Governor on August 9, 2019 and is effective January 1, 2020.

Who must be trained?

"All employees" ²

When is the first training deadline?

The Act is effective January 1, 2020 and employees must be trained every year so it would appear the deadline for first training is December 31st, 2020.

Restaurants and bars must also include training on:

• Specific conduct, activities, or videos related to the restaurant or bar industry
• An explanation of manager liability and responsibility under the law
• English and Spanish language options
• Note - Restaurant and bar employers will also now be required to provide a written sexual harassment policy to all new employees during the first calendar week of their employment

1. An "Employer has the same meaning as set forth in Section 2-101 of the Illinois Human Right Act". The IDHR Frequently Asked Questions further clarified that Employers with at least 1 employee must provide the training.
2. "Employee" has the same meaning as set forth in Section 2-101 of the Illinois Human Rights Act. This definition includes, but is not limited to, “any individual performing services for remuneration within this State for an employer”, apprentices and unpaid interns. The IDHR Frequently Asked Questions further clarified that Employers are required to train all employees in Illinois, including short-term and part-time employees, and interns but are not required to train independent contractors, although are strongly advised to train independent contractors who will work on-site at the employer’s workplace or interact with the employer’s staff. Employers are required to train any employee who will perform work or regularly interact with the Employer’s employees in Illinois, even if based in another state
3. S.B. 75 created the Public Act 101-0221 (titled the Workplace Transparency Act)which amended Section 2-109 of the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA)
4. Employers are encouraged to retrain their new employees, regardless of whether the employee received the required training at a prior place of employment. Employers must independently retain their own records to show that all employees received the required sexual harassment prevention training. Employers may ask employees to provide documentation that they completed the training elsewhere. However, employers are responsible for ensuring the training received elsewhere is compliant with the IHRA. If the employer is unable to obtain the proper documentation, employers must have the employee retrained. Again, the employer is responsible for demonstrating all employees completed the annual training