Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act: Rights and Duties

The Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (820 ILCS 175) governs staffing agencies that supply short-term manual, industrial, and construction workers in Illinois, and it binds both the agencies and the client businesses that use them. It requires agencies to register with the state, hand workers a written dispatch notice, pay at least a show-up minimum, cover certain costs the client or agency cannot pass to workers, and raise pay to match direct hires once a worker exceeds 720 hours at the same client site. The Illinois Department of Labor enforces the Act, and workers can also sue directly.¹

Who the Act Covers

The Act reaches any person or entity in the business of placing day or temporary laborers with a third-party client for a fee.² Warehouses, factories, construction sites, and other businesses that bring in workers through a staffing company are third-party clients under the law and share several obligations.

The covered work is manual: labor, construction, manufacturing, and similar physical jobs. Professional and clerical placements are excluded, so an agency that only staffs offices or licensed professionals generally falls outside the Act.³ An agency that places both office staff and warehouse workers is covered as to the warehouse placements.

What Workers Receive at Dispatch

Each time an agency sends a worker to a job, it must give the worker a written dispatch statement. The notice has to spell out:⁴

The worker’s name, the worksite name and address, and the agency’s contact information.
The nature of the work, basic duties, and any required equipment, protective clothing, or training.
The hourly wage for the assignment.
How the worker will get to the worksite and any costs involved.
Whether the agency or client provides meals or equipment, and what those cost.

The agency must pay at least the wage stated in that notice for every hour worked on the assignment, including tasks that go beyond the original description.⁵

Pay, Show-Up Time, and Prohibited Charges

Daily pay is the default, but a worker can request weekly, biweekly, or semimonthly checks, in which case the agency must consolidate earnings into a single payment or, at the worker’s option, direct deposit. Vouchers and other non-negotiable payment forms are prohibited.⁵ Agencies paying daily must post a conspicuous notice explaining the right to switch.

Show up to a client site and get sent home unused, and the agency still owes you. The minimum is four hours at the promised rate. If the agency reassigns you to a different site during the same shift, the minimum drops to two hours.⁵

Several fees cannot be charged to workers at all:

Fees to cash a paycheck the agency issued.⁵
The cost of criminal background checks, consumer reports, or drug testing, whether billed by the agency or the client.
Any fee for transportation to or from a designated worksite. The agency also cannot require a worker to use a paid carpool as a condition of the job.⁶
Charges for meals the worker did not eat. Buying a meal can never be a condition of getting work.⁷

Required equipment and safety gear can be charged only at actual market value, and only for items the worker fails to return. Even then, total deductions for meals, equipment, and transportation cannot pull the worker’s hourly pay below the state or federal minimum wage.⁵

Equal Pay and Benefits After 720 Hours

Once a temporary worker exceeds 720 hours at the same client site within any 12-month period, the agency must raise the worker’s pay to match comparable direct hires. Every hour worked for that client counts toward the 720, regardless of gaps between assignments.⁸ The requirement applies to hours worked on or after April 1, 2024.

The Act gives two ways to set the rate. The default is the hourly rate of the lowest-paid direct-hire employee at the client with similar seniority and similar work; if no comparable employee exists, the agency uses the closest equivalent position.⁸

The client, at its sole discretion, can instead use Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Under that method the worker must earn at least the median hourly rate for the same occupation in the same Illinois metropolitan area from the most recent Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Survey. If the worker exceeds 4,160 hours at the same client within a 48-month window, the benchmark rises to the 75th percentile for that occupation.⁸

Benefits come with the wage. The agency must provide benefits substantially similar to those offered comparable direct hires, such as health insurance and retirement contributions, or pay the hourly cash equivalent instead.⁸ Coordination between agency and client is where most back-pay claims start, since the client holds the direct-hire wage and benefits data the agency needs.

Safety Training: A Split Responsibility

Before placing a worker, the agency must assess the client’s worksite, tasks, and existing safety program. That assessment is required at the start of every new contract.⁹ The agency then provides general safety awareness training on recognized industry hazards, delivered in the worker’s preferred language and at no cost to the worker.

The client handles site-specific training tied to its own equipment and hazards, consistent with OSHA standards. Site training must be documented, and the client has three business days to send confirmation to the agency. If the client changes the worker’s tasks or location and new hazards appear, the client must notify the agency and the worker before the new work begins and update protective equipment and training.⁹ The agency may visit any worksite to confirm the client’s training firsthand.

What Client Businesses Must Do

Client businesses are not passive customers under this law. Before contracting with any agency, the client must confirm the agency is registered with the Department of Labor. That check has to be repeated every March 1 and September 1.⁹ Using an unregistered agency exposes the client to civil penalties of $100 to $1,500 per violation, rising to $500 to $7,500 for repeat offenses, with each day of noncompliance counted separately.

Wage responsibility is also shared. If the agency fails to pay a worker, the client is jointly liable under both the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act and the Minimum Wage Law.⁹ A worker who cannot collect from a defunct agency can pursue the client business directly.

Right To Refuse Strike Replacement Work

Illinois separately bars using temporary workers as strikebreakers. Under the Employment of Strikebreakers Act, no employer may knowingly contract with a staffing agency to replace employees whose work has stopped because of a strike or lockout.¹⁰ The Day and Temporary Labor Services Act reinforces that ban with a right to refuse: a worker cannot be penalized for turning down an assignment to a site where a labor dispute is underway.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Neither the agency nor the client may retaliate against a worker for exercising rights under the Act. Prohibited retaliation includes firing, cutting hours, changing assignments, or any other adverse action taken because a worker:¹¹

Complained to the agency, the client, a community organization, or a state or federal agency about a violation.
Started or caused a legal proceeding under the Act.
Testified or prepared to testify in an investigation or proceeding.

Retaliation triggers both civil penalties and a private lawsuit.

Registration Requirements for Agencies

Every day and temporary labor service agency must register with the Illinois Department of Labor each year before dispatching a single worker.³ The current fees are $1,000 for the agency plus $250 for each branch office; the statute authorizes up to $3,000 per agency and $750 per branch.¹²

Registration also requires proof of workers’ compensation insurance and a surety bond with a principal of at least $150,000, which guarantees wage payments if the agency defaults.¹³ Operating without a registration draws a $500 penalty for each day the agency runs unregistered, and the Department can shut the operation down.¹²

Penalties and Private Lawsuits

The Department of Labor investigates through audits, worksite inspections, and reviews of payroll, dispatch, and training records.¹

The general civil penalty for a violation runs from $100 to $18,000 in a first audit or court action. Repeat violations found within three years after a first audit carry $250 to $7,500 per violation. Willful violations can be penalized at up to double the standard amount. When a willful violation underpays a worker, the agency or client owes up to 20% of the underpayment to the Department, and the worker gets punitive damages equal to 2% of the underpayment for each month it remains unpaid.¹⁴

Workers do not have to wait for the Department. Any worker harmed by a violation can file directly in circuit court in the county of the violation or the county where the worker lives, without first exhausting administrative remedies. Class actions are allowed. Recoverable damages depend on the violation:¹⁵

Wage and hour violations: lost wages and benefits plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the recovery.
Safety or notice violations: compensatory damages plus up to $500 for each violated subsection of each statutory section.
Retaliation: all appropriate legal and equitable relief.
Attorney’s fees and costs: recoverable in every case.

Liquidated damages on wage claims and attorney’s fees across the board make this one of the more worker-favorable enforcement frameworks in Illinois labor law.

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/55 – Enforcement By The Department
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175 – Day And Temporary Labor Services Act
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Illinois Department of Labor. Day And Temporary Labor Services Act
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/10 – Employment Notice And Application Receipt
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/30 – Wage Payment And Notice
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/20 – Transportation
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/15 – Meals
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/42 – Equal Pay For Equal Work
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/85 – Third Party Clients
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 30 – Employment Of Strikebreakers Act
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/90 – Retaliation
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Illinois Department of Labor. Day And Temporary Labor Service Agency Registration
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/45 – Registration
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/75 – Willful Violations
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 175/95 – Private Right Of Action