Illinois WARN Act: Notice Requirements, Exceptions, and Penalties

The Illinois WARN Act requires employers with 75 or more full-time workers to give 60 days’ written notice before a plant closing, mass layoff, or relocation that causes significant job losses. Formally called the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (820 ILCS 65), it covers smaller employers than the federal WARN Act and adds relocations as a standalone trigger. Employers who skip the notice owe back pay and benefits to affected workers and can face civil penalties from the state.

Which Employers Are Covered

A “business enterprise” is covered if it has 75 or more employees (not counting part-time workers), or 75 or more employees who together work at least 4,000 hours a week, excluding overtime.¹ A part-time employee is one who averages fewer than 20 hours a week or who has worked fewer than 6 of the last 12 months.²

Several employer types are excluded. Federal, state, and local government agencies and school districts do not fall under the law. Charitable organizations covered by the Charitable Trust Act or the Solicitation for Charity Act are also excluded, along with tax-exempt institutions.³ Workers at nonprofits and tax-exempt entities aren’t protected by the Illinois statute, though federal WARN may still reach their employers if the workforce is 100 or more.

Events That Require 60 Days’ Notice

Three categories of employer action trigger the notice obligation: plant closings, mass layoffs, and relocations.¹

Plant Closings

A plant closing is the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single employment site, or of one or more facilities or operating units within a site, that causes job losses for 50 or more full-time employees during any 30-day period.² The whole building doesn’t have to go dark. Shutting down a production line or department can qualify if enough jobs disappear.

Mass Layoffs

A mass layoff is a workforce reduction that isn’t part of a plant closing and that causes job losses at a single site during any 30-day period for either at least 25 full-time employees who make up at least 33% of the full-time workforce at that site, or at least 250 full-time employees regardless of what share they represent.¹ The dual test matters. A company of 1,000 that lets go of 30 workers hasn’t crossed the 33% mark. A company of 60 that cuts 25 has crossed both.

Relocations

Illinois treats relocations as a separate trigger, which federal law does not. If an employer moves operations and the move produces job losses at the original site, the 60-day requirement kicks in.¹ No employment loss occurs, however, if the employer offers a transfer to a site within reasonable commuting distance (with no more than a six-month break), or offers a transfer to any other site and the employee accepts within 30 days.²

Layoffs Spread Across Weeks

The thresholds are measured over a 30-day window, but related job losses within a 90-day period can be aggregated if they collectively meet the size cutoffs.⁴ An employer can’t sidestep the law by staggering terminations.

What Counts as an Employment Loss

Not every separation is an employment loss under the Act. Three events qualify: an involuntary termination (other than a firing for cause, a voluntary quit, or a retirement), a layoff lasting longer than six months, and a reduction in work hours of more than 50% during each month of any six-month stretch.²

The six-month rule catches employers who label a permanent shutdown “temporary.” If a layoff described as short-term drags past six months, it retroactively becomes an employment loss dating back to day one. To avoid liability, the employer has to show the extension was caused by business circumstances it couldn’t reasonably have foreseen, and it has to provide notice as soon as the need for an extension becomes apparent.⁵

Who Must Receive Notice

Written notice must be delivered at least 60 calendar days before the mass layoff, closing, or relocation takes effect. Two groups receive it:

Every affected worker, or the worker’s union representative if one exists. Mailing the notice to an employee’s last known address or including it with a paycheck are both acceptable.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and the chief elected official of each municipal and county government where job losses will occur.⁶

What the Notice Must Say

Illinois requires the same content as the federal WARN Act.⁶ A compliant notice identifies each affected employment site and provides a contact person at the company for follow-up questions. It states whether the action is permanent or temporary and whether the whole plant is closing. It gives the expected date of the first separation, the anticipated schedule for further separations, and the approximate number of full-time employees at the site. And it lists the job titles being eliminated with the number of employees in each classification.⁷

Notices don’t include Social Security numbers or personal identifying information. Filings list job titles and headcounts, and they become part of the public record through DCEO’s published WARN reports.

Two-Year Notice for Power Plants and Coal Mines

Owners of investor-owned electric generating plants and coal mining operations face a longer timeline. They must provide two full years of advance notice before ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or employment loss. The same two recipient groups apply.¹

Exceptions That Shorten or Eliminate Notice

The Act doesn’t require the full 60 days in every situation, but when an exception applies, the employer must still give as much notice as reasonably possible and include a brief written explanation of why the period was shortened.⁸

Faltering Business

This applies only to plant closings. The employer has to show it was actively seeking capital or business at the time notice would have been due, that obtaining that capital would have let it avoid or postpone the shutdown, and that it reasonably believed in good faith that giving notice would have scared off the opportunity. The Illinois Department of Labor makes this determination, and the employer must submit supporting documents and a sworn affidavit.⁸

Unforeseeable Business Circumstances

Also limited to plant closings, this exception applies when the need for the shutdown wasn’t reasonably foreseeable at the time notice would have been required. A sudden loss of a major contract or an unexpected regulatory action can qualify. The employer bears the burden of documenting the circumstances to the Department of Labor.⁸

Physical Calamity, Terrorism, or War

No notice is required at all when the mass layoff, relocation, or employment loss is caused by a physical calamity or an act of terrorism or war.⁶ Federal WARN uses the narrower phrase “natural disaster.” Illinois uses “physical calamity,” and this exception applies to all three triggering events, not just plant closings.

Temporary Projects, Strikes, and Lockouts

Notice isn’t required when a temporary facility closes or a project-based assignment ends, as long as the workers were hired with the understanding that their employment was tied to the duration of the facility or project. Strikes and lockouts are also exempt, provided the lockout isn’t designed to evade the Act.⁸

Penalties for Failing to Give Notice

Consequences split by who was left out.

Back Pay to Employees

An employer that fails to notify affected workers owes each one back pay calculated at the higher of two rates: the employee’s average pay over the last three years or the employee’s final rate of pay. The employer also covers the value of lost benefits, including medical expenses the employee incurred that would have been covered under the company’s health plan.⁹

Liability runs for the length of the violation, capped at either 60 days or half the total number of days the employee worked for the company, whichever is smaller. A worker employed for only 40 days would be limited to 20 days of back pay, not 60.⁹

Several offsets can reduce the employer’s bill: wages paid during the violation period (excluding accrued vacation pay), voluntary unconditional payments not otherwise required, and employer-paid benefits such as health premiums or pension contributions during that period. Amounts paid under federal WARN also reduce state liability.⁹

Civil Penalty for Skipping Government Notice

Failing to notify DCEO and local officials carries a civil penalty of up to $500 for each day of the violation. The employer can avoid this penalty entirely by paying all affected employees their full back pay and benefits within three weeks of ordering the layoff or closing.¹⁰

Good-Faith Reduction

If the employer shows the Director of the Department of Labor that the violation was made in good faith and with reasonable grounds for believing it wasn’t a violation, the Director has discretion to reduce the amount owed.⁹

How Illinois WARN Differs from Federal WARN

Both laws exist at once, and employers have to satisfy whichever is stricter. The Illinois version is broader in several ways.

Lower employer threshold. Illinois covers employers with 75 or more full-time workers; federal WARN requires 100 or more.⁷
Lower mass layoff trigger. Illinois requires notice when 25 or more workers (and at least 33% of the site’s workforce) lose their jobs. Federal law starts at 50.⁷
Relocation coverage. Illinois treats relocations as a standalone trigger; federal WARN has no separate relocation category.¹
Administrative enforcement. Under federal WARN, employees and local officials sue in federal court. Illinois gives the Director of the Department of Labor authority to investigate, examine employer records, and hold administrative hearings.⁷
Two-year notice for power plants and coal mines. Illinois requires two years’ advance notice for closures of investor-owned electric generating plants and coal mining operations. Federal law has no equivalent.⁶

Where the two laws overlap, the Illinois statute is interpreted consistently with federal WARN and the federal regulations and case law under it.¹¹ An employer with 75 to 99 workers deals only with Illinois WARN; an employer with 100 or more has to satisfy both.

1
Justia Law. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65 – Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
2
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/5 – Definitions
3
Legal Information Institute. Illinois Administrative Code Title 56, Section 230.110 – Definitions
4
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Notices of Layoffs and Closures (WARN)
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Frequently Asked Questions
6
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/10 – Notice
7
Illinois workNet. Illinois WARN Requirements and Procedures
8
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/15 – Exceptions
9
Justia Law. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/35 – Violation and Liability
10
Justia Law. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/40 – Civil Penalty
11
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 65/55 – Interpretation