New laws
Tuesday, Oct 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Illinois companies can no longer ask job applicants or their previous employers about their pay history under a law that took effect Sunday. Supporters say the measure will help close the pay gap between women and men.
Sarah Labadie, associate director of policy for Women Employed, a nonprofit advocating for equal pay for women in the workforce, said the main goal of the law is to restructure how companies pay their workers so that pay discrepancies aren’t perpetuated.
Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, who co-sponsored the legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, said she hopes the new law will even the playing field.
“Women tend to make less than their male counterparts. If (a company is) basing it off past wages, it causes them to continue to get paid less. Employers will no longer be able to make wage offers by using previous wage history,” Moeller said.
The paper goes on to detail the new law.
* Progressive Railroading…
Indiana Rail Road Co., the Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association have asked a federal judge to stop Illinois from enforcing a new law that requires a minimum of two crew members on trains.
In a lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court yesterday against the Illinois Commerce Commission, the railroad and associations argue that federal regulations preempt the crew-size law that Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed in August. The law is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Pritzker signed the law three months after the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) determined that “no regulation of train-crew staffing is necessary or appropriate” for railroads to operate safely, according to the lawsuit.
“In recent decades, technological breakthroughs have allowed railroads to gradually decrease average crew sizes —from about five in the 1960s to just two today — while compiling an ever-improving record of safety,” the court filing states. “Now, the nation’s railroads are poised to deliver even safer and more efficient service.”
The lawsuit is here.
* Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore)…
Every October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month across the nation, but this year especially, we have reason to take notice of this cause here in our own community. Local breast cancer screening rates have fallen below the state and national average. DeKalb County’s breast cancer screening rate is 65%. The statewide average is 78%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
My family, like so many others in our community, has been impacted by women battling breast cancer. As a husband and father of a college age daughter, women’s health issues are a kitchen table issue in my house, just as I’m sure it is in homes across the State of Illinois. To help make a difference, I sponsored a bill this spring to broaden the availability of mammogram screening, SB 162.
On August 26, Governor Pritzker came to DeKalb to sign my bill into law at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, which just last week celebrated the opening of their new Breast Health Center. Our new law requires both private insurance and Medicaid to cover several preventative measures to help women detect breast cancer. Mammograms, ultrasounds and MRIs will now be covered when deemed medically necessary by a physician, advanced practice nurse or physician assistant, effective January 1, 2020.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, upwards of ten thousand women in Illinois are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. With the new law increasing access to preventative care, early detection and treatment can help save lives.
My bill, which is now Public Act 101-0580, passed both the House of Representatives and State Senate unanimously this spring, making it a bipartisan achievement we can all be proud of. I would like to thank the breast cancer survivors and advocates whose support was pivotal in getting this new law passed. Together we will continue to make major strides to prevent breast cancer and ensure that women have access to the screenings and life-saving care they need.
- Question - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 12:55 pm:
Can a potential employer ask a prior employer for your salary during the background check?
Can a potential employer find out what you are making in any legal manner?
- Steve - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:16 pm:
The don’t ask law will make some HR departments leery of hiring individuals that they can’t get enough information on. This might actually hurt more women than it helps. Also, not a bad 1st Amendment lawsuit for Alito, Thomas, and conservatives to look over, limiting the ability to get labor market information.
- Newcomer - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:31 pm:
==Can a potential employer ask a prior employer for your salary during the background check?==
No, unless the applicant falls under one of the listed exceptions.
==Can a potential employer find out what you are making in any legal manner?==
There are some exceptions written in, such as where an employee’s salary information is public record (i.e. state workers). Also, applicants can voluntarily disclose such information, but the employer cannot rely on it in its decision making process.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:31 pm:
Not really seeing the logic on this. In most contexts and situations (if not all) if I am hiring for X position I have a fairly good idea of what I am willing (and able) to pay for that position. If I extend an offer to candidate A, it should be the best I can offer (or at least what I think they will accept). If I know they only made A at their last current job, it will make it easier for me to them less (hey this is a 10% raise for them and my normal person in this role makes 25% more), but I don’t see how it is going to prevent me from making the offer.
Worse they are going to say if you offer them too little is no. You may get them to make a counteroffer and you can then negotiate. If you pass on a candidate because you think they may say no or counter you that is stupid.
If you are hiring people without finding out what that role generally pays in your area you have bigger issues. Getting pay information from an individual is all about limiting what you are going to offer them.
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:39 pm:
“The don’t ask law will make some HR departments leery” Try this analogy: You’re buying a car. How much do you offer the dealer? I’ll bet your answer is most heavily influenced by the sticker in the window and not how much you value the car.
- Occasional Quipper - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:54 pm:
==How much do you offer the dealer?==
If it’s a new car, you can get pretty reliable information that can help you decide how much to offer. But if it’s a used car and you don’t know the history, then you’re going to make a low offer because there might be something wrong with it. So your car analogy confirms that more information is always better.
- Techie - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 1:54 pm:
I’m very happy employers will no longer be able to base their offer to you on your previous/current pay. It will make it harder for them to low-ball potential employees, men and women alike, by offering them more than their current salary, but less than the going rate.
This will necessarily make them give offers based more on market rates/their ability to pay/the candidate’s experience, which is what their offers should be based on.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:15 pm:
What you were worth to your previous employer is irrelevant to a a new job. You have an idea of what you’re worth and the employer has a range they wish to pay. Negotiate. Nut I don’t believe that it will make a significant difference in the male/female wage gap since this is an artifact of much more than gender bias. Issues such as the careers women move into, the decision of many to stay at home after children and later working part-time. But still a good law.
- DuPage - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:25 pm:
The 1-man train crew is fine if everything goes right. Things can go horribly wrong, however. The railroad in Canada involved in the disaster at Lac Megantic had recently gone to 1-man crews.
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:46 pm:
“So your car analogy confirms that more information is always better.” Yes, but the useful information that’s better isn’t the price. It’s what’s wrong with the car. You also proved the point of this law. The dollar amount you offered is based on the condition of the car, not what the previous owner paid for it.
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:49 pm:
“The dollar amount you offered is based on the condition of the car…” and how badly you need it.
- Ubecha - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:49 pm:
DuPage is spot on, what happens when trains, which are seemingly longer than ever, encounter mechanical failures enroute and come to a screeching halt, blocking crossings and having a town divided in two? Or when a train strikes a vehicle at a grade crossing? Seems like commonsense stuff to have a second crew member on board to address any potential scenarios that could have negative impacts on local communities.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/labor/287824-operating-a-freight-train-with-a-single-crew-member-is-unsafe
- Downstate - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:50 pm:
Du-Page,
If 2 man train crews are safer, then shouldn’t we require all commercial buses be operated with 2 crew? Trains were already operating remotely without incident. It’s already tough enough to find RR crew that can pass a drug test.
- JSS - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 2:59 pm:
Not sure I would have ever associated the words “Progressive” and “Railroad” together, let alone learn today that there is a magazine called “Progressive Railroading”. Is this a Soros backed publication?
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 3:00 pm:
Did the 2 man crew law not have an exemption for short-line rail? Rail yards and short-line rail spurs do not require 2 man crews.
- Southern - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 3:16 pm:
Illinois companies can no longer ask job applicants or their previous employers about their pay history under a law that took effect Sunday.
I guess that means the Comptroller Ledger should be taken offline.
- John's Daughter - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 3:44 pm:
This is interesting considering the State of Illinois places a new employee on the salary scale based on prior salary history. That’s why there’s such a huge range between employee starting salaries. I’ve known employees that came into the job at all levels and the State justifies it by saying the disparity was based upon prior salary history. Wonder if all state employment offers will now be offered at the lowest pay grade, the middle, or the highest?
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 4:18 pm:
“I guess that means the Comptroller Ledger should be taken offline.”
There’s an exemption in the law for just that.
“Wonder if all state employment offers will now be offered at the lowest pay grade, the middle, or the highest?” Anecdote: Lowest, regardless of experience.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 4:21 pm:
===There’s an exemption in the law for just that===
Because they’re public records.
- Southern - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 4:35 pm:
There’s an exemption in the law for just that=
They have an exemption where they can still ask the salary history. If a State employee applies for a different job, the employer doesn’t have to ask their salary history because the same government that just passed this law publishes their salary history for free
- Threepwood - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 5:06 pm:
So…there is insurance that will not cover mammograms, ultrasounds and MRIs for cancer diagnosis when deemed medically necessary by qualified medical personnel? Wow.
- Captain Obvious - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 5:35 pm:
John’s Daughter - state employment offer are now low end of the scale. Makes it hard to get the best employees available when hiring from outside the state, unless they are savvy enough to ask for an adjustment after they get low-balled. So this law ain’t necessarily all good.
- Former Merit Comp - Tuesday, Oct 1, 19 @ 10:14 pm:
Interesting……I picked up an application at the McDonough County Highway Dept for an acquaintance who works out of town and they asked for salary history for every job you’ve ever had. Wonder how governments and private companies are notified of this new law…….
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