Illinois is slowly chipping away at its gender pay gap, but for many Black and Hispanic workers, the raises still are not catching up.
That is the takeaway from a new University of Illinois analysis of employer pay filings, which finds modest statewide progress for women while documenting stubborn shortfalls for workers of color. Using individual-level payroll records, the study maps where the gaps bite hardest and shows they are most severe in low-wage craft and service jobs. For Chicago area readers, there is one relatively bright spot: Cook County generally posts smaller gender gaps than many downstate regions.
Statewide Numbers, Employer By Employer
The Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois examined more than 3.2 million employee-level records submitted by nearly 4,000 private employers to the Illinois Department of Labor between 2021 and 2023, according to the Project for Middle Class Renewal. After controlling for job, firm, and region, the researchers estimate that women earn roughly 91 to 93 cents for every dollar paid to men in comparable roles, while Black and Hispanic workers earn roughly 6 to 10 percent less than comparable White peers.
What The Authors Say
Robert Bruno, director of the Labor Education Program and co-author of the study, told ABC7 Chicago that “ensuring pay equity does more than protect justice in the workplace.” He said the employer-level transparency gives regulators and communities better tools to spot problem employers and design targeted fixes.
Where The Gaps Hit Hardest
The University of Illinois analysis finds the narrowest gender gaps in professional and managerial occupations and the largest shortfalls in craft, operative, and service jobs. The worst disparities are concentrated outside Cook County, according to the report. Racial pay gaps are most entrenched at the bottom of the wage distribution, a pattern that transparency by itself has not yet erased.
Law On The Books, Teeth In The Data
The report relies on data gathered under the 2021 amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act, which requires covered private employers to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate and submit detailed wage and demographic data. The Illinois Department of Labor also notes that pay range posting requirements for job ads took effect on January 1, 2025, a change the agency says will strengthen oversight and help workers compare offers, according to the Illinois Department of Labor.
Turning Reports Into Real Consequences
To turn reporting into action, the study recommends better data validation, standardized job titles, public dashboards, employer self-audit tools, and a threshold flagging system that would prioritize enforcement for firms with large disparities. Those recommendations are summarized in coverage of the report, and Yahoo News notes that the plan aims to make the Illinois individual-level reporting system enforceable rather than merely informational.
What It Means In Chicago
For Chicago, the finding that Cook County shows smaller gender gaps suggests local hiring markets and policies may be helping narrow disparities even as statewide medians lag. Recent state data show women in Illinois earned roughly 90 cents on the dollar in median weekly pay, a broader wage context that USAFacts notes the employer level report helps to flesh out.
The authors urge employers to run routine pay audits, adopt objective job evaluation tools and work with the state so that flagging large gaps leads to follow up reviews rather than sitting in a spreadsheet. Workers who believe an employer failed to post required pay information or otherwise violated the Equal Pay Act can file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor through its online form, available from the Illinois Department of Labor.
