Labor & Employment Law Update

On July 31, 2026, Governor Pritzker signed new legislation greatly expanding the already-broad investigatory powers of the Workplace Rights Bureau in the Attorney General’s Office (“OAG”). Effective January 1, 2027, the law authorizes the OAG to investigate supposed violations of Illinois employment law and creates penalties for employers that do not comply. In essence this signals yet another move by Illinois to dispense with the fundamental due process rights of employers.

How the Illinois Attorney General's Workplace Rights Bureau Gained Expanded Authority

Originally created by statute on January 1, 2020, as an amendment to the Illinois Attorney General Act, 15 ILCS 205/6.3, the Workplace Rights Bureau was given sweeping authority to go after Illinois businesses for supposed violations of state employment laws. In the six plus years since it was created, the attorney general claims to have "recovered" more than $15 million, ostensibly for Illinois workers from employers in Illinois.

The attorney general also claimed that “bad actors exploit procedural gaps to evade accountability, stall investigations, and force the bureau into lengthy and expensive court battles to access basic records” and that additional tools were needed to “level” the playing field for the Workplace Rights Bureau to “defend workers’ rights.” One has to question how hobbled the Bureau was if it was able to recover more than $15 million in a little over six years from Illinois businesses.

Expanded Attorney General Powers to Investigate Illinois Employers

Regardless, Illinois employers must now deal with yet another expansion of the OAG’s powers to come after them for supposed violations of Illinois employment laws. The OAG now has the power to demand from employers essentially anything it wants. Specifically, the OAG can issue subpoenas for documents, require written answers under oath to written interrogatories, inspect the premises of employers, make copies of records at the employer’s premises, and conduct interviews with employees, amongst other overbroad actions. All without a court order and without any judicial supervision. This significantly cuts into the due process rights of Illinois businesses— entities owned, run by, managed, and staffed by the same Illinois citizens the OAG claims to protect.

Additionally, the amendments to the Illinois Attorney General Act allow for the OAG to obtain an administrative inspection warrant for the inspection of premises if the employer decides not to allow free access to its non-public areas. The Act now also blanketly states that any individual assisting the OAG is a “confidential government informer” and can assert the previously very narrow government informer’s privilege. Moreover, if an employer pushes back on the subpoena or “investigation” because it is overbroad and steps on its due process rights, the OAG can petition the court for an order requiring compliance. The employer would then be forced to obtain legal representation to defend its fundamental rights in court.

New Penalties for Illinois Employers

The Act now also provides that any employer, or agent thereof, that knowingly removes, conceals, withholds, destroys, mutilates, alters, or falsifies any documentary material subject to the subpoena is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. 

This legislation, effective January 1, 2027, has largely flown under the radar in Illinois, but is a breathtaking expansion of the OAG’s powers and deprives Illinois business owners of fundamental due process rights.