ILLINOIS UPDATE: Recent Changes to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act

DATE: September 12, 2025

By: Andy Martone

The summer of 2025 saw a number of significant changes made to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (“IPWA”) that will affect not only projects covered by the IPWA, but also federal projects that were previously subject only to Davis-Bacon.

Under its prior language, the IPWA did not apply to federal construction projects that were covered by a Davis-Bacon wage determination. However, on August 14, 2025, Governor Pritzker signed an amendment to the IPWA that reads as follows:

• Section 2.  – “Public Works” also includes all federal construction projects administered or controlled by a public body if the prevailing rate of wages is equal to or greater than the prevailing wage determination by the United States Secretary of Labor for the same locality for the same type of construction used to classify the federal construction project.
• Section 11. – No public works project shall be instituted unless the provisions of this Act have been complied.  This provision of this Act shall not be applicable to federal construction projects that require a prevailing wage determination by the United States Secretary of Labor, except as described in Section 2.

This Amendment can be read to substantially expand the coverage of IPWA to cover Davis-Bacon projects that are administered or controlled by a public body – such as IDOT – if the Illinois prevailing wage rate is “equal to or greater than” the Davis-Bacon wage rate.

While it has been represented that this amendment was only intended to make sure that  an employer pays the Illinois prevailing wage rate on federal projects if it is higher than the Davis-Bacon wage rate, the actual language of the amendment is not limited in this fashion, and one interpretation of this language would be that on projects where the Davis-Bacon rate and the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act are identical (or if the Illinois prevailing wage rate is higher), the IPWA would apply to the project in full.

This would be a significant change because the requirements of the IPWA can be substantially different than the requirements of Davis-Bacon – for example, in the coverage of material transportation. This amendment could be constitutionally problematic if it is interpreted in this manner because it would mean that the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act would essentially override Davis-Bacon on federal projects covered by the amendment.  This is an issue that will most likely be resolved in the courts.

© 2026 by Andrew J. Martone and Martone Legal, L.L.C.