Equal Pay Registration Certificate (EPRC) - FAQS

In 2021, the Illinois General Assembly passed and Governor Pritzker signed into law PA 101-656 and PA 102-36. These laws amended the State’s Equal Pay Act of 2003 (820 ILCS 112 et seq.) by adding a new section to the law (“Section 11”) requiring all private employers with 100 or more employees in Illinois to submit demographic and wage data to IDOL along with an Equal Pay Compliance Statement certifying, among other things, that the average compensation for its female and minority employees is not consistently below the average compensation for its male and non-minority employees. The Section 11 reporting requirement, which was linked to whether an employer had to submit a federally-mandated Annual Employer Information Report EEO-1, included submitting the EEO-1 itself, but that requirement was administratively suspended in 2023. These legislative changes are intended to promote pay transparency and ensure that all Illinoisians, regardless of their background, receive equal pay for substantially similar work they do on behalf of an employer. 

A business includes an individual, partnership, corporation, LLC, association, business, trust, person, or entity for whom employees are gainfully employed.
 

Existing Business:  ONLY employers with 100 or more employees in Illinois (FAQ 5) that are required to file an EEO-1 with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or their holding company is required to file an EEO-1) are mandated to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate.

New Businesses: New private businesses that have 100 or more employees in Illinois and that are required to file an EEO-1 with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity must visit the survey of business contacts; IDOL will then provide you with an EPRC deadline due date, which will provide 120 days for your business to complete its submission. Once a new business has received an Equal Pay Registration Certificate, it is required to recertify every two years after the initial certification was issued (See FAQ 4).
 

Public Employers:  Public employers are not required to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate.  Public employers are government agencies, school districts, and other sub-entities of government.  Religious organizations are not included in “public employers”.
 

Employers with 99 or fewer employees:  Businesses with 99 or fewer employees are not required to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate. If a business receives a notice to certify or recertify and the business has 99 or fewer employees, or had 100 or more employees and now has 99 or fewer employees, the business must file an enrollment form with IDOL (see FAQ 13).

If you have not been contacted by IDOL and have not provided IDOL with your contact information, please visit the survey of business contacts to receive further instructions. Though you may be concerned about penalties for failure to report previously, if your entity was never sent any notices before about failure to register for EPRC, it is highly unlikely that you will be assessed any penalty.

If your business has one EIN number but multiple locations, you must create only one login for your business on the EPRC portal. The address provided in your EPRC account should be the best address for business correspondence and does not need to be an Illinois address.

The portal is designed for you to register multiple businesses under one login when you have a separate business. A separate business is a business name that has a different/separate EIN or FEIN.

If you created a login for a business/EIN that has 99 or fewer employees, then you first must complete the Exemption/Business Name Change Form for that business name (See FAQ 14); you cannot delete an EPRC account or delete a business name added to an EPRC account for auditing purposes.  

If that occurs, please also email DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov to notify staff of the name change.

If you change the business name on your account after registering, you must complete the Exemption/Business Name Change Form for that business name (See FAQ 14) AND email DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov to notify staff of that change.

After receiving an initial Equal Pay Registration Certificate, businesses are required to recertify every two years from the date their last certificate was issued. IDOL will contact businesses by email to all email addresses provided in your EPRC account 180 days prior to recertification deadlines.

Adding additional users and/or using a corporate/business general email address can alleviate missed notices as original users turnover or leave the business. (See FAQ 8).

Step-by-step instructions on recertification are available below in FAQ 29.

Illinois employees are the individuals who worked at your factory/facility/office in Illinois plus the 100% remote employees who report directly to Illinois management.

For determining the requirement to certify, the total number of employees is the total number of Illinois employees your business employed on December 31 of the calendar year immediately preceding your reporting deadline.

If you have an account/login, but have forgotten your user name or password, IDOL does not have control over password retention or reset. Please contact the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology help desk at 217-524-3648.

A step-by-step PowerPoint instruction guide can be found at the EPRC Home Page. For updating users/contacts, start at slide 14.

To add a user:  The new contact/user must create its own public ID, then log into the EPRC portal with the EIN number of your business.  A notice will appear that the EIN is already in the system.  The new user will then request access to the existing EPRC account which will generate an email to the primary user who can then approve the secondary contact.

To promote a secondary user:  To promote a secondary user to primary user status, the primary user must log into the EPRC account and click the plus sign icon next to the business contact to be promoted to primary status.  This will demote the primary contact to secondary status. If you need to delete a secondary contact click the trash can next to that contact name.

IDOL strongly recommends adding additional users and/or using a corporate/business general email address for EPRC, as doing so can alleviate missed email notices that may occur when original users turnover or leave the business.

If you have an EPRC account, but your primary user cannot approve a new user, you should create a secondary user and then contact IDOL at DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov for further assistance.

A step-by-step Power Point instruction guide can be found on the EPRC Home Page.

 If you have not created an account/login, you must first create an Illinois Public ID Account:

a)    To create an Illinois Public ID Account, click here (will open a new tab). Do not close out of this page after your account is created, as you will need to return here to log in to the online portal.

b)    Click "Create a new Account" and complete the registration form.  Note: The address for your business is the main business address you use for correspondence whether inside Illinois our out-of-state.

c)     Create a primary and secondary contact.

d)    If you did not receive an email, please send an email to DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov for further instructions.

To complete the Application Process (after a login is created):

In the EPRC portal:

a)    Import or upload a list of all employees during the calendar year immediately preceding your application due date separated by gender, race, and ethnicity categories as reported to in the most recently filed EEO-1 in a text-searchable, sortable Microsoft Excel file or comma-separated values file format, as well as any other information required by IDOL (a sample template for wage data can be found at Equal Pay Registration Certificate Template (XLS).

b)    The business may provide any other information it believes is relevant to explain any pay disparities amongst its employees by uploading a document containing the relevant information AND listing which employees the information applies to in the document section of the portal.

c)     Upload the Equal Pay Compliance Statement found at Compliance Statement Template signed by a corporate officer, legal counsel, or authorized agent of the business.

d)    If you are completing a recertification, you are not required to upload a copy of any EEO-1 report you filed with the Federal EEOC. If your business is completing an original application for an Original Notice of Deadline date of January 1, 2023 or later, you are not required to upload a copy of any EEO-1 report. If your business is completing an original application for an Original Notice of Deadline date prior to January 1, 2023, you are required to upload the EEO-1 statement you filed in the year 2021 with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and

e)    Submit your filing fee (The fee must be paid by electronic payment using any major credit or debit card within the portal at the end of the application process).

A flow chart of the EPRC application process can be found at Equal Pay Registration Certificate Process Flowchart

“Wages” means any compensation paid to an employee by an employer pursuant to an employment contract or agreement between the two parties, including wages, salaries, earned commissions, deferred compensation, earned bonuses, stocks and ownership shares.  Wages includes wages paid for Vacation and PTO.

Wages as reported on an employee’s W2-Box 5 should have the most complete information for the purposes of EPRC data reporting.

“Hours” means all compensated hours.  Hours includes hours paid for vacation and PTO.

Hours for Salaried Employees: For salaried employees where you do not track the hours worked you should enter the gross yearly paid hours required under your employment agreement.

Data must be imported in alpha and numeric data only; use of special characters, decimal points, commas, or abbreviations will cause a data error.  The best form to import data is in a CSV file. A sample data template is available here. You must use the exact language from the template to have your data import without error messages.

For reporting data on an employee whose position changed during the reporting calendar year, report the changes on separate lines.

If you receive an error message when uploading your data, you should email a screen shot of the error message to DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov for review.

Specific questions:

How do I report data for an employee who was promoted during a reporting calendar year?

One entry should be created with the employee’s original hire date and a termination date when the employee was promoted and a second entry would be created for that same employee with a “hire” date, and an additional entry would be created of additional promotions.

How do I report data for an employee who was terminated/separated/ laid off and was then rehired?

One entry would be created with the employee’s original hire date and a termination date when the employee separated and a second entry would be created for that same employee with a “hire” date when the employee was rehired, and an additional entry would be created of separations and rehires.

How do I report data for an employee who has differing pay rates in one reporting period?

If an employee simultaneously works for a single employer in different classifications or with different titles, the business should upload a document with an explanation which lists the employees involved to the document section of the portal.

How do I report if employee was paid on an hourly or salary basis?
In the Paid HS column, enter H if the employee was paid by the hour or enter S if the employee was paid a salary.

How do I report employees’ hourly wage data?

1. Report the base hourly wage rate for hourly paid employees in numeric decimal format only, "e.g." 22.15. Do not use overtime rate, shift differential rates, or premium rates.

2. For salaried employees leave the hourly rate column blank.

How do I report employees covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)?

1. Each employee will be marked either Yes (Y) or (N).

2. If no employees are covered by a CBA, all answers are N.

3. If all employees are covered by a CBA, all answers are Y.

4. If some employees are, and some are not, covered by a CBA, you will answer either Y or N for each employee.

All questions or concerns about employee reporting should be directed to DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov and will be resolved on a case-by-case basis.

Businesses that have received a deadline to certify or recertify and believe an exemption applies to their business MUST apply for an exemption, see FAQ 14.

Business that are exempt are:

1. Businesses with 99 or fewer employees as defined in FAQ 5 and 6.

2. Businesses that are not required to file an Annual Employer Information Report EEO-1 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

3. State of Illinois government agencies, including the State of Illinois, any State officer, department, or agency, any unit of local government, and any public school district.

4. Federal agencies or entities.

Any other reasons will be reviewed after an Exemption/Business Name Change Form is submitted.

The Exemption-Business Name Change Form is available at Exemption/Business Name Change Form. A business that has received a notice to certify or recertify and believes it is exempt from reporting, must submit an Exemption Form, completed and signed by an authorized agent of the business and submitted by email to DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov. 

If IDOL denies the exemption, IDOL will email the business with the reason why the exemption is denied and your business will be required to complete its submission by the issued deadline or re-submit an Exemption/Business Name Change Form.

The Illinois Equal Pay Act allows currently employed individuals to request anonymized data for the pay rates of employees in their job title or job classification limited to their employer and limited to county where the employee works.

A current employee of a business may request data for their own job classification or job title and the pay for that job classification or job title.  The request must be in writing and contain the employee’s name, date of hire, job title or classification, and the dates for the data being requested, with a signed affidavit from the employee and must also include evidence that the employee currently holds the specific job title at that business. Acceptable evidence includes pay stubs, work schedules, a hire letter, a work ID, business cards, and company website listings.  A Request for Data Form is available at Equal Pay Registration Certificate Request for Data Form

If a private employer with 100 or more employees in Illinois is required to file an annual EEO-1 and commits a violation of Section 11 – which could include not filing an EPRC application or recertification, not complying with the requirements of the EPRC process, or otherwise violating the Equal Pay Act – the statute provides for a number of possible agency actions. IDOL may reject an EPRC initial or recertification application, suspend or revoke an existing EPRC certificate, and/or impose a civil penalty or fine of up to $10,000.

Before any fine is imposed for a failure to initially register in EPRC, or recertify,  IDOL will send a Notice of Delinquency to the employer and provide them 30 calendar days to submit the missing application or recertification. If the situation is not remedied, IDOL will send the employer a Notice of Violation that contains a sliding penalty scale based on the number of days it takes the business to cure the deficiencies and pay the penalty.

An Equal Pay Compliance Statement is a statement that your business complies with Federal and State Equal Pay laws and reviews its pay structure on a regular basis.  Uploading your employee manual does not comply with this provision.  All the provisions/paragraphs in the template must be completed and submitted as part of your EPRC application. It must be submitted in writing, and must be signed by a corporate officer, legal counsel, or authorized agent of the business submitting the application. The Compliance Statement certifies:

1. that the business in compliance with the Equal Pay Act and other relevant laws, including but not limited to, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e), the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (29 U.S.C. 206(d)), the Illinois Human Rights Act (775 ILCS 5), and the Equal Wage Act (820 ILCS 110);

2. that the average compensation for its female and minority employees is not consistently below the average compensation, as determined by rule by the United States Department of Labor, for its male and non-minority employees within each of the major job categories in the Employer Information Report EEO-1 for which an employee is expected to perform work;

3. that the business does not restrict employees of one sex to certain job classifications, and makes retention and promotion decisions without regard to sex;

4. that the business corrects wage and benefit disparities when identified;

5. how often the business evaluates benefits and wages; and

6. the approach the business takes in determining what level of wages and benefits to pay its employees.

To download an Equal Pay Compliance Statement template, click here.

In hopes of simplifying the existing process, in early 2025 IDOL is working toward making the Compliance Statement a web-based fillable document with a digital signature. Until that update is completed, users must continue to download the form, complete and sign, and upload to your application.

Most employers subject to the EPRC requirement were contacted by IDOL and provided a deadline for registration in 2023 or 2024. Under the Illinois Equal Pay Act, even if an employer was not contacted by the Department, employers still had a statutory obligation to complete an EPRC submission by March 23, 2024.

If you believe your entity is required to make an EPRC application and you did not receive a notice to that effect, please visit the Survey of Business Contacts to provide IDOL with your entity’s contact information. Registering your business name in the survey of business contacts will inform IDOL that you have 100 or more employees and are required to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate. IDOL will then provide your business with instructions to create and EPRC account and how to complete your submission.

A business's EPRC application must include:

1. A list of all employees during the 12-month calendar year immediately prior to the deadline or recertification due date, separated by gender and the race and ethnicity categories as reported in the business's most recently filed Employer Information Report EEO-1 in a text-searchable, sortable Microsoft Excel file or comma-separated values file format, with the hours worked by each employee in the payroll year, as well as any other information required by IDOL on the application form. Beginning in 2025, businesses also must include whether each employee was paid hourly or by salary (and if hourly, the hourly rate of pay), and was covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement.;

2. An Equal Pay Compliance Statement signed by a corporate officer, legal counsel, or authorized agent of the business.

If your total employee count was fewer than 100 employees as defined in FAQ 5a, you MUST complete an exemption form Exemption/Business Name Change Form and send the complete, signed form to DOL.EPRC@Illinois.gov.

In hopes of simplifying the existing process, in early 2025 IDOL is working toward making the Exemption/Business Name Change Form a web-based fillable document with a digital signature. Until that update is completed, users must continue to download the form, complete and sign, and send by email.

If you have employees who have chosen not to identify their race and/or gender, you may select "choose not to identify" for the applicable category or categories.

The IDOL follows the below guidance Federal EEOC below:

Voluntary self-identification by employees is the preferred method of identifying the race and/or ethnicity information required for the EEO-1 Component 1 report. The basic principlesfor race and ethnicity self-identification for purposes of the EEO-1 Component 1 report are:

(1) Offer employees the opportunity to self-identify.

(2) Provide a statement about the voluntary nature of this inquiry for employees.

For example, language such as the following may be used (employers may adapt this language):

“The employer is subject to certain governmental recordkeeping and reporting requirementsfor the administration of civil rights laws and regulations. In order to comply with these laws, the employer invites employees to voluntarily self-identify their race or ethnicity. Submission of this information is voluntary and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information obtained will be kept confidential and may only be used in accordance with the provisions of applicable laws, executive orders, and regulations, including those that require the information to be summarized and reported to the federal government for civil rights enforcement. When reported, data will not identify any specific individual.”

If an employee declines to self-identify their race and/or ethnicity, employment records or observer identification may be used. Where records are maintained, they should be kept separately from the employee’s basic personnel file or other records available to those responsible for personnel decisions.

No. Any data that could be associated with an individual business or person is required to be kept confidential under Section 11 of the Equal Pay Act, with two exceptions:

• A current employee of a business subject to Section 11 may request anonymized data regarding their job classification or title and the pay for that classification. No individually identifiable information may be provided to an employee making such a request. Equal Pay Registration Certificate Request for Data Form
• IDOL may share data and identifiable information with the Department of Human Rights, pursuant to its enforcement of Article 2 of the Illinois Human Rights Act, or the Office of the Attorney General, pursuant to its enforcement of Section 10-104 of the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Section 11 does allow IDOL to compile aggregate data and reports based on the wage data submitted that include the job category and the average hourly wage by county for each gender, race, and ethnicity category on the EPRC applications. Aggregate reports are not required to be kept confidential, but they will not include any data that could be associated to any individual business or person. 

If the wage data submitted in an employer's EPRC application shows that the employer is paying unequal wages to men and women employees, or to African-American and non-African American employees, IDOL may seek additional information from the employer before determining whether to grant or deny the EPRC application. If IDOL has granted an EPRC, if it later deduced from the EPRC data submission that the employer was in violation of the Equal Pay Act, IDOL could seek to suspend or revoke the EPRC certificate for failure to comply with the Equal Pay Act. Additionally, IDOL may initiate its own investigation pursuant to Sections 10(a) and 15(c) of the Equal Pay Act and Section 320.200 of the Equal Pay Act administrative regulations. See Subpart H of the Administrative Rules

Falsification or misrepresentation of information on an EPRC application submitted to IDOL is a violation of the Equal Pay Act and IDOL may seek to suspend or revoke an Equal Pay Registration Certificate or impose civil penalties up to $10,000.

1. Developing a new data template that every new and recertifying employer will use to submit pay data.

2. Asking via new required fields for employers to identify (a) whether each position is subject to a collective bargaining agreement and (b) how each position as paid (hourly or salaried), and, if hourly, the pay/hour.

3. Making it easier for employers to submit web-based forms like Compliance Statements and Exemption applications; you will no longer have to download forms, fill them out, and then scan and upload them!

4. Enhancing options for identifying employee race by adding “Middle Eastern or North African”.

IDOL cannot remove or delete any account created in the EPRC portal. You MUST complete an exemption form to have the EPRC account deactivated and to avoid that business name being issued a Notice of Violation.  Please return you completed form to the email address DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov AND in body of your email state that you created an EPRC account that needs to be deactivated.

If you have recently created a new business, you will be required to complete an ERPC submission three (3) years after the date your business commenced operations.  IF your business employes 100 or more employees on December 31 preceding the date your business began operations, you may unilaterally complete a submission OR, to receive reporting requirements, you may either provide your business contact information in the survey of business contacts or email DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov and provide your business name and the date your business began operations.

If you have a business that has operated in Illinois for at least three (3) years and has grown to employ 100 or more Illinois employees as defined in FAQ 5 and 6, you may unilaterally complete a submission OR to receive reporting requirements you may either provide your business contact information in the survey of business contacts or email DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov and provide your business name and the date when your business met the requirement to submit an application (when on December 31 your business employed 100 employees).

If you have a business that has operated for at least three (3) years and recently began operating in Illinois or acquired and Illinois location by merger or other acquisition, you should review FAQ 5 and 6 to determine if you have 100 or more Illinois employees.  If your business has 100 or more Illinois employees, you may complete a submission OR to receive reporting requirements you may either provide your business contact information in the survey of business contacts or email DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov and provide your business name and the date you became required to submit an application (the year when on December 31 your business employed 100 employees).

If your business is NOT required to submit an application, you are NOT required to take any further action and are NOT required to file an exemption form UNLESS the Department contacts your business.

A step-by-step Power Point instruction guide can be found on the EPRC Home Page.

1.     Sign into the EPRC portal using your public ID.

2.     Click New Submission.

3.     Select Business Name.

4.     Answer the Collective Bargaining Agreement question.

5.     Select from the dropdown menu the year you are reporting data for, use the immediate preceding year, prior to the certificate expiration date.

6.     Click Confirm.

7.     Click Import Process and download the Equal Pay Registration Certificate Template (XLS) or

8.     Upload your completed template. (If you receive error messages, send a screenshot of the error message to DOL.EPRC@illinois.gov )

9.     Click Continue to next step.

10. Upload the Equal Pay Compliance Statement found at Compliance Statement Template signed by a corporate officer, legal counsel, or authorized agent of the business. (Coming in 2025 an online fillable form will be used)

11. Upload any other documents (if needed).

12. Click Continue to next step.

13. Agree to certification and enter first and last name.

14. Proceed to payment screens and submit payment.