(820 ILCS 125/5.1) (from Ch. 48, par. 198.5)

(Section scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2024)

Sec. 5.1. Wage board.

1. A wage board shall be composed of not more than 2 representatives of the employers in any occupation or occupations, an equal number of representatives of the employees in such occupation or occupations and of one disinterested person representing the public, who shall be designated as chairman. The director shall appoint the members of such wage board, the representatives of the employers and employees to be selected so far as practicable from nominations submitted by employers and employees in such occupation or occupations. A majority of the members of such wage board shall constitute a quorum and the recommendations or report of such wage board shall require a vote of not less than a majority of all its members. Members of a wage board shall serve without pay, but may be reimbursed for necessary traveling expenses. The Department shall make and establish from time to time rules and regulations governing the selection of a wage board and its mode of procedure not inconsistent with this Act.

2. A wage board shall have power to administer oaths and to require by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses, the production of all books, records, and other evidence relative to any matters under investigation. Such subpoenas shall be signed and issued by a member of the wage board and may be served by any person of full age. Any circuit court upon application of any member of a wage board may, in its discretion, compel the attendance of witnesses and giving of testimony and the production of books, records and other evidence by attachment for contempt or otherwise in the same manner as production of evidence may be compelled before the court. A wage board shall have power to cause depositions of witnesses residing within or without the State to be taken in the manner prescribed for like depositions in civil actions in the circuit court.

3. The Department shall present to a wage board promptly upon its organization all the evidence and information in its possession relating to the wages of women and minor workers in the occupation or occupations for which the wage board was appointed and all other information which the Department deems relevant to the establishment of a minimum fair wage for such women and minors, and shall cause to be brought before the committee any witnesses deemed material. A wage board may summon other witnesses or call upon the Department to furnish additional information to aid it in its deliberation.

4. Within 60 days of its organization a wage board shall submit a report including its recommendations as to minimum fair wage standards for the women or minors in the occupation or occupations the wage standards of which the wage board was appointed to investigate. If its report is not submitted within such time the Department may constitute a new wage board.

5. A wage board may differentiate and classify employments in any occupation according to the nature of the service rendered and recommend appropriate minimum fair rates for different employments. A wage board may also recommend minimum fair wage rates varying with localities if in the judgment of the wage board conditions make such local differentiation proper and do not effect an unreasonable discrimination against any locality.

6. A wage board may recommend a suitable scale of rates for learners and apprentices in any occupation or occupations, which scale of learners' and apprentices' rates may be less than the regular minimum fair wage rates recommended for experienced women or minor workers in such occupation or occupations.

(Source: P.A. 91-357, eff. 7-29-99. Repealed by P.A. 103-201, eff. 1-1-24.)