Illinois restaurant training: what the law requires

Illinois is one of the few states that writes restaurant- and bar-specific rules directly into its harassment law. Every Illinois employer owes the same baseline training, but restaurants and bars carry an extra layer on top, industry scenarios, manager-liability content, and a written policy most other Illinois businesses don't have to produce. Add Chicago's own hour requirements for anyone with staff working in the city, and it's easy to under-comply without realizing it. This page lays out exactly what applies to your restaurant or bar, and how IDHR's own free materials compare to a done-for-you course. It's a practical guide, not legal advice; confirm current requirements for your situation.

The baseline every Illinois employer owes, every year

SwiftSCORM's Illinois course is designed to meet the content requirements of IHRA §2-109 for every employee, plus the added §2-110 restaurant/bar content and, where it applies, Chicago's bystander-intervention topic, all in one bilingual course, with a built-in exam, a completion certificate, and a manager dashboard for proof.

• Every employer, every year, no size threshold. IHRA §2-109(B) requires every employer with employees working in Illinois, a three-table café or a multi-location group, to train every employee at least once every calendar year. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary staff are all covered.
• Content-based, not hour-based. Illinois doesn't set a minimum training duration the way California does. What matters is hitting the required content: an explanation of harassment consistent with the IHRA, examples of unlawful conduct, a summary of the remedies available under state and federal law, and a summary of the employer's own prevention, investigation, and correction responsibilities.
• No interactivity mandate, but built as one anyway. Illinois doesn't require the "interactive" format New York does. SwiftSCORM still builds it as a study-then-test interactive lesson, because it's better training, not because IDHR requires the format.

Restaurants and bars carry an extra requirement most Illinois businesses don't (§2-110)

If your business's main purpose is selling food prepared for immediate, on-site consumption, or you serve alcohol for on-premises consumption, §2-110 adds two things on top of the §2-109 baseline.

• Supplemental training content. Industry-specific scenarios, tip-based pay pressure, alcohol service, late-night shifts, off-site catering, plus an explicit explanation of manager and supervisor liability. Illinois's own guidance for bars and restaurants is direct: employers can be strictly liable for harassment committed by their own managers, regardless of whether ownership knew, and a manager who witnesses harassment and does nothing doesn't reduce that exposure.
• A written policy, in English and Spanish, within the first week. Separate from training, §2-110 requires restaurants and bars to adopt their own written sexual harassment prevention policy and give it to every new employee, in English and Spanish, within their first calendar week. Training doesn't substitute for this; it's a document requirement of its own.

Chicago adds its own hour requirements, on top of state law

If anyone on your team works within Chicago's city limits, including remote employees based there, Chicago Municipal Code §6-10-040 has required, since July 1, 2022, more hours than the state law alone:

• Every employee: 1 hour of sexual harassment prevention training plus 1 hour of bystander-intervention training, annually, 2 hours total.
• Supervisors and managers: 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training plus 1 hour of bystander-intervention training, annually, 3 hours total.

The state's own model training covers the base 1-hour piece, but Chicago employers still have to add the extra supervisor hour and the bystander-intervention hour(s) on top to be fully compliant. Outside Chicago, this section doesn't apply, just the statewide §2-109/§2-110 rules above.

What about IDHR's own free training materials?

Fair question. Illinois's Department of Human Rights (IDHR) does publish free model materials: a general-employer training packet for the §2-109 baseline, and a separate brochure built specifically for bars and restaurants covering the §2-110 supplemental content. If that's genuinely all you need, you don't need us. Two things are worth knowing before you rely on it.

• It's two documents, and the written policy is a third. Using IDHR's free materials means assembling the general training and the restaurant/bar supplement yourself, and separately drafting and distributing your own bilingual written policy within each new hire's first calendar week, none of it comes bundled together.
• No built-in record-keeping. IDHR requires you to keep some form of training record, a certificate, a signed acknowledgment, or a sign-in sheet, available for its inspection, but doesn't provide a way to generate or store one. That part is manual. If Chicago's ordinance also applies to you, tracking the extra hours per employee on top of that gets harder to do by hand.

So use whichever path fits: take IDHR's free materials and assemble your own combined program, written policy, and record-keeping around them, or run SwiftSCORM's Illinois course and get the baseline, the restaurant/bar supplement, and the Chicago bystander-intervention content in one bilingual course with an automatic completion record.

Proof is what matters if a charge gets filed

An employee can file a charge with IDHR generally within two years of the conduct, a 2025 change from the old 300-day deadline, or with the EEOC within about 300 days. Either way, "everyone got trained" only holds up with a record behind it: who, which course, pass or fail, and the date. Every SwiftSCORM completion produces that record automatically, and the dashboard exports it any time. Here's what a defensible record needs →

This is training, not legal advice, and SwiftSCORM's course is not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the City of Chicago, or any other government agency. Sources: Illinois Human Rights Act §§2-109, 2-110 and IDHR training and policy standards (dhr.illinois.gov) · Chicago Municipal Code §6-10-040 (chicago.gov/cchr). Laws and city ordinances change, verify current requirements before relying on them.