Bill Text: IL HB5625 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that the definition of "employee" includes every student participant in an athletic program at an institution of higher education, but only when the student is participating in an athletic event, travel to and from an athletic event, or an organized training activity. Sets forth a method to calculate the average weekly wage of a student athlete.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-05 - Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HB5625 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB5625-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB5625 Introduced 2/9/2024, by Rep. Kam Buckner SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
820 ILCS 305/1 from Ch. 48, par. 138.1
820 ILCS 305/10 from Ch. 48, par. 138.10
Amends the Workers' Compensation Act. Provides that the definition of "employee" includes every student participant in an athletic program at an institutions of higher education, but only when the student is participating in an athletic event, travel to and from an athletic event, or an organized training activity. Sets forth a provision to calculate the average weekly wage of a student athlete.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning employment.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Workers' Compensation Act is amended by
changing Sections 1 and 10 as follows:
(820 ILCS 305/1) (from Ch. 48, par. 138.1)
Sec. 1. This Act may be cited as the Workers' Compensation
Act.
(a) The term "employer" as used in this Act means:
1. The State and each county, city, town, township,
incorporated village, school district, body politic, or
municipal corporation therein.
2. Every person, firm, public or private corporation,
including hospitals, public service, eleemosynary, religious
or charitable corporations or associations who has any person
in service or under any contract for hire, express or implied,
oral or written, and who is engaged in any of the enterprises
or businesses enumerated in Section 3 of this Act, or who at or
prior to the time of the accident to the employee for which
compensation under this Act may be claimed, has in the manner
provided in this Act elected to become subject to the
provisions of this Act, and who has not, prior to such
accident, effected a withdrawal of such election in the manner

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provided in this Act.
3. Any one engaging in any business or enterprise referred
to in subsections 1 and 2 of Section 3 of this Act who
undertakes to do any work enumerated therein, is liable to pay
compensation to his own immediate employees in accordance with
the provisions of this Act, and in addition thereto if he
directly or indirectly engages any contractor whether
principal or sub-contractor to do any such work, he is liable
to pay compensation to the employees of any such contractor or
sub-contractor unless such contractor or sub-contractor has
insured, in any company or association authorized under the
laws of this State to insure the liability to pay compensation
under this Act, or guaranteed his liability to pay such
compensation. With respect to any time limitation on the
filing of claims provided by this Act, the timely filing of a
claim against a contractor or subcontractor, as the case may
be, shall be deemed to be a timely filing with respect to all
persons upon whom liability is imposed by this paragraph.
In the event any such person pays compensation under this
subsection he may recover the amount thereof from the
contractor or sub-contractor, if any, and in the event the
contractor pays compensation under this subsection he may
recover the amount thereof from the sub-contractor, if any.
This subsection does not apply in any case where the
accident occurs elsewhere than on, in or about the immediate
premises on which the principal has contracted that the work

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be done.
4. Where an employer operating under and subject to the
provisions of this Act loans an employee to another such
employer and such loaned employee sustains a compensable
accidental injury in the employment of such borrowing employer
and where such borrowing employer does not provide or pay the
benefits or payments due such injured employee, such loaning
employer is liable to provide or pay all benefits or payments
due such employee under this Act and as to such employee the
liability of such loaning and borrowing employers is joint and
several, provided that such loaning employer is in the absence
of agreement to the contrary entitled to receive from such
borrowing employer full reimbursement for all sums paid or
incurred pursuant to this paragraph together with reasonable
attorneys' fees and expenses in any hearings before the
Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission or in any action to
secure such reimbursement. Where any benefit is provided or
paid by such loaning employer the employee has the duty of
rendering reasonable cooperation in any hearings, trials or
proceedings in the case, including such proceedings for
reimbursement.
Where an employee files an Application for Adjustment of
Claim with the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission
alleging that his claim is covered by the provisions of the
preceding paragraph, and joining both the alleged loaning and
borrowing employers, they and each of them, upon written

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demand by the employee and within 7 days after receipt of such
demand, shall have the duty of filing with the Illinois
Workers' Compensation Commission a written admission or denial
of the allegation that the claim is covered by the provisions
of the preceding paragraph and in default of such filing or if
any such denial be ultimately determined not to have been bona
fide then the provisions of Paragraph K of Section 19 of this
Act shall apply.
An employer whose business or enterprise or a substantial
part thereof consists of hiring, procuring or furnishing
employees to or for other employers operating under and
subject to the provisions of this Act for the performance of
the work of such other employers and who pays such employees
their salary or wages notwithstanding that they are doing the
work of such other employers shall be deemed a loaning
employer within the meaning and provisions of this Section.
(b) The term "employee" as used in this Act means:
1. Every person in the service of the State, including
members of the General Assembly, members of the Commerce
Commission, members of the Illinois Workers' Compensation
Commission, and all persons in the service of the University
of Illinois, county, including deputy sheriffs and assistant
state's attorneys, city, town, township, incorporated village
or school district, body politic, or municipal corporation
therein, whether by election, under appointment or contract of
hire, express or implied, oral or written, including all

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members of the Illinois National Guard while on active duty in
the service of the State, and all probation personnel of the
Juvenile Court appointed pursuant to Article VI of the
Juvenile Court Act of 1987, and including any official of the
State, any county, city, town, township, incorporated village,
school district, body politic or municipal corporation therein
except any duly appointed member of a police department in any
city whose population exceeds 500,000 according to the last
Federal or State census, and except any member of a fire
insurance patrol maintained by a board of underwriters in this
State. A duly appointed member of a fire department in any
city, the population of which exceeds 500,000 according to the
last federal or State census, is an employee under this Act
only with respect to claims brought under paragraph (c) of
Section 8.
One employed by a contractor who has contracted with the
State, or a county, city, town, township, incorporated
village, school district, body politic or municipal
corporation therein, through its representatives, is not
considered as an employee of the State, county, city, town,
township, incorporated village, school district, body politic
or municipal corporation which made the contract.
2. Every person in the service of another under any
contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written,
including persons whose employment is outside of the State of
Illinois where the contract of hire is made within the State of

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Illinois, persons whose employment results in fatal or
non-fatal injuries within the State of Illinois where the
contract of hire is made outside of the State of Illinois, and
persons whose employment is principally localized within the
State of Illinois, regardless of the place of the accident or
the place where the contract of hire was made, and including
noncitizens, and minors who, for the purpose of this Act are
considered the same and have the same power to contract,
receive payments and give quittances therefor, as adult
employees.
3. Every sole proprietor and every partner of a business
may elect to be covered by this Act.
4. Every student participant in an athletic program at an
institutions of higher education, but only when the student is
participating in an athletic event, travel to and from an
athletic event, or an organized training activity.
An employee or his dependents under this Act who shall
have a cause of action by reason of any injury, disablement or
death arising out of and in the course of his employment may
elect to pursue his remedy in the State where injured or
disabled, or in the State where the contract of hire is made,
or in the State where the employment is principally localized.
However, any employer may elect to provide and pay
compensation to any employee other than those engaged in the
usual course of the trade, business, profession or occupation
of the employer by complying with Sections 2 and 4 of this Act.

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Employees are not included within the provisions of this Act
when excluded by the laws of the United States relating to
liability of employers to their employees for personal
injuries where such laws are held to be exclusive.
The term "employee" does not include persons performing
services as real estate broker, broker-salesman, or salesman
when such persons are paid by commission only.
(c) "Commission" means the Industrial Commission created
by Section 5 of "The Civil Administrative Code of Illinois",
approved March 7, 1917, as amended, or the Illinois Workers'
Compensation Commission created by Section 13 of this Act.
(d) To obtain compensation under this Act, an employee
bears the burden of showing, by a preponderance of the
evidence, that he or she has sustained accidental injuries
arising out of and in the course of the employment.
(Source: P.A. 102-1030, eff. 5-27-22.)
(820 ILCS 305/10) (from Ch. 48, par. 138.10)
Sec. 10. The basis for computing the compensation provided
for in Sections 7 and 8 of the Act shall be as follows:
The compensation shall be computed on the basis of the
"Average weekly wage" which shall mean the actual earnings of
the employee in the employment in which he was working at the
time of the injury during the period of 52 weeks ending with
the last day of the employee's last full pay period
immediately preceding the date of injury, illness or

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disablement excluding overtime, and bonus divided by 52; but
if the injured employee lost 5 or more calendar days during
such period, whether or not in the same week, then the earnings
for the remainder of such 52 weeks shall be divided by the
number of weeks and parts thereof remaining after the time so
lost has been deducted. Where the employment prior to the
injury extended over a period of less than 52 weeks, the method
of dividing the earnings during that period by the number of
weeks and parts thereof during which the employee actually
earned wages shall be followed. Where by reason of the
shortness of the time during which the employee has been in the
employment of his employer or of the casual nature or terms of
the employment, it is impractical to compute the average
weekly wages as above defined, regard shall be had to the
average weekly amount which during the 52 weeks previous to
the injury, illness or disablement was being or would have
been earned by a person in the same grade employed at the same
work for each of such 52 weeks for the same number of hours per
week by the same employer. In the case of volunteer firemen,
police and civil defense members or trainees, the income
benefits shall be based on the average weekly wage in their
regular employment. When the employee is working concurrently
with two or more employers and the respondent employer has
knowledge of such employment prior to the injury, his wages
from all such employers shall be considered as if earned from
the employer liable for compensation. In the case of student

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