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The Chicago Auto Trade Association published our article about new overtime rules, effective January 1, 2020 in the CATA Bulletin.

The weekend’s news from McDonald’s that the board ousted CEO Steve Easterbrook for conducting what is described in the press as a “consensual relationship” in the workplace is a topic we'll review in today's post along with what tools are available to companies to manage workplace dating.

Savine Employment Law, Ltd. recently received a “Client’s Choice” award from online legal directory, AVVO. It also was again named to the top employment lawyers in Chicago by Expertise.com, a research company dedicated to finding the best service providers in localities across the country.

Companies or individuals acquiring an existing business should determine if the seller faces potential civil rights violations and, if so, take this fact into account in the acquisition process. If a buyer overlooks these liabilities, they could inherit them, despite longstanding Illinois precedent against such “successor liability,” at least according to one appeals court.In People ex rel. Dep’t of Human Rights v. Oakridge Nursing & Rehab Ctr., the First District Appellate Court held that the general rule of successor corporate nonliability may not apply to Illinois Human Rights Act claims against predecessor companies, if circumstances fit an exception to non-liability previously applied only in federal courts.

Today, the Supreme Court kicks off its new term with several employment cases, including cases on appeal from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals right here in Chicago. Illinois employers should keep tabs on these cases and anticipate how the Court’s rulings will add to a bevy of new compliance obligations going into effect in 2019-20.

In his inaugural address, Governor Pritzker promised to expand “true justice in our criminal justice system” and advance “economic inclusion” for Illinoisans who have previously been incarcerated. Two new laws carry out this promise and build on the efforts of 2015’s “Ban the Box” law to make it easier for the estimated 42 percent of Illinois residents with criminal backgrounds to avoid automatic disqualification and to get jobs. 


This morning, September 24, 2019, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published its final overtime rule. The final rule is effective January 1, 2020, giving employers about 100 days to review and adjust the pay of their exempt workforce to comply with the law.

In a not-entirely surprising September 12, 2019 notice in the Federal Register, the EEOC announced that it plans on not renewing an Obama-era rule requiring employers to provide pay data as part of their annual employer information (EEO-1) report until after it assesses whether the two years’ worth of pay data a federal court ordered it to obtain under the rule is useful to its efforts to address gender pay gap.