Illinois EPRC Rules Tighten: No More 'Prefers Not to Identify' Beginning Jan 2027
The Illinois Department of Labor eliminated the 'prefers not to identify' option for race/ethnicity starting January 2027 and is reviewing three years of EPRC data for pay disparities that could trigger enforcement action.
In July 2026, the Illinois Department of Labor notified employers of significant changes to the Equal Pay Registration Certificate program effective January 2027. The IDOL eliminated the 'prefers not to identify' option for race and ethnicity reporting, requiring employers to use employment records or observer identification to populate missing self-ID data. Concurrently, the agency shortened the overdue-filing remediation process from three steps to two, accelerating penalty exposure. The IDOL also published findings from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analysis of 2021–2023 EPRC data revealing consistent gender and racial pay gaps, and proposed a three-tier threshold flagging system to identify employers with gaps exceeding 5%, 15%, or 25%. For Illinois employers, this signals a shift from passive compliance to active enforcement targeting statistical disparities. Counsel should advise clients to audit their EPRC data against the proposed flagging thresholds, review self-ID collection procedures, and consider privileged pay-equity analyses before the IDOL releases self-audit tools and initiates follow-up reviews.