ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR URGE ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT TO REJECT AMAZON’S ATTEMPT TO LIMIT STATE MINIMUM WAGE LAW

ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR URGE ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT TO REJECT AMAZON'S ATTEMPT TO LIMIT STATE MINIMUM WAGE LAW

October 01, 2025

Chicago - Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) today urged the Illinois Supreme Court to reject Amazon's request to limit the Illinois Minimum Wage Law in a lawsuit filed against the company by its Illinois warehouse workers. Raoul and IDOL filed an amicus brief in Johnson v. Amazon.com Services LLC in support of the workers, who say Amazon failed to pay them for time they spent undergoing mandatory public-health screenings at the warehouses before their work shifts.

"Illinois law goes further than federal law when it comes to protecting the rights of our workers," Raoul said. "In Illinois, when a worker is required to spend their valuable time at a workplace for pre-shift tasks, they're entitled to be paid for that time. I will continue advocating for Illinois workers and ensuring our wage-and-hour standards are respected and enforced."

"Illinois law is clear that workers must be paid for the time they spend performing tasks their employer requires," said IDOL Director Jane Flanagan. "The Illinois Department of Labor will continue to stand with workers to ensure that the state's minimum wage law is enforced as written-without inserting federal loopholes that weaken its protections."

The warehouse workers sued Amazon under both the Illinois Minimum Wage Law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. A federal trial judge dismissed the workers' federal claims based on an exception in the Fair Labor Standards Act for "preliminary" and "postliminary" job activities. The judge also dismissed their state-law claims, reasoning that the Illinois Minimum Wage law implicitly incorporates the same exception. The plaintiffs appealed the ruling on their state-law claims. However, instead of ruling for either party, the federal appellate panel asked the Illinois Supreme Court to clarify whether Illinois law incorporates the exception, explaining that the case raised an "unsettled question of state law" with "profound significance to workers and employers in Illinois."

In their brief in the Illinois Supreme Court, Raoul and IDOL argue that Illinois has never enacted an exception like the one that exists at the federal level. Although Illinois courts sometimes look to federal law for guidance when interpreting state minimum-wage law, the brief explains, doing so here would be inappropriate because that would add a sweeping exception into a law that Illinois passed to protect workers, and no provision of state law mirrors the relevant federal provision. Raoul and IDOL emphasize that the Fair Labor Standards Act permits the state to enact wage-and-hour standards that exceed federal standards, which Illinois has consistently done.

The brief emphasizes Illinois' independence from federal workers' rights standards at a particularly turbulent time for worker protections at the federal level. The Trump administration recently announced a plan to roll back more than 60 federal workplace rights regulations.

Attorney General Raoul's Workplace Rights Bureau protects and advances the employment rights of all Illinois residents, particularly the state's most vulnerable residents. The bureau investigates and litigates cases involving serious or persistent wage law violations or other significant employment practices, and monitors and proposes legislation concerning labor and employment issues.

Attorney General Raoul encourages workers who have concerns about wage and hour violations or potentially unsafe working conditions to call his Workplace Rights Hotline at 1-844-740-5076 or to file a complaint online.