A recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Illinois that the state’s minimum wage law does not incorporate the federal Portal-to-Portal Act’s (PPA) exclusion for “preliminary or postliminary” employee activities could open the door to a wave of new wage-and-hour lawsuits by employees over time spent undergoing health or security screenings or other required activities before and after their shifts.
Quick Hits
- The Illinois Supreme Court held that Illinois’s Minimum Wage Law does not adopt federal exclusions for preliminary and postliminary activities.
- The ruling came in a certified question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and revived a class of employees’ state wage-and-hour claims over mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screenings.
- The ruling highlights a trend of state courts holding that their states’ wage-and-hour laws do not necessarily follow the federal understanding of compensable time.
On March 19, 2026, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a decision answering a certified question from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concerning whether Section 4a of the Illinois Minimum Wage Law (IMWL) incorporates the PPA’s exclusion from compensation for activities that are “preliminary to or postliminary to [an employee’s] said principal activity or principal activities.”
Pre-Shift COVID-19 Screenings
In Johnson, a group of employees filed a class action alleging they were not compensated for mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screenings, which they claimed lasted an average of ten to fifteen minutes and sometimes caused them to clock in late. The employees raised claims under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the IMWL.
A federal district court found that the employees’ federal claims were barred under the PPA, which amended the FLSA to relieve employers from paying for commuting time and certain “preliminary or postliminary” (i.e., before and after work) activities that are not “integral and indispensable” to an employee’s principal job duties. The district court also dismissed the Illinois claims, reasoning that Illinois courts frequently looked to FLSA case authority for guidance.
Illinois Wage Law Does Not Incorporate Preliminary and Postliminary Exclusion
In a 6–0 ruling (one justice took no part), the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the IMWL did not incorporate PPA’s exclusion for preliminary and postliminary activities.
The court pointed out that there is no mention or reference to the PPA or to preliminary or postliminary activities in the IMWL. Moreover, the court commented that the IMWL does list specific exceptions to the forty-hour overtime requirement, only four of which incorporate by reference the FLSA. The court reasoned that this shows that had the Illinois General Assembly intended to incorporate the PPA, it would have done so expressly.
Further, the court noted that while the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) regulations defining “hours worked” reference certain PPA regulations governing the compensability of travel time, they do not reference the PPA provisions establishing the exclusion for preliminary or postliminary activities.
“To the contrary, IDOL defines ‘hours worked’ to include all time an employee is required to be on the employer’s premises, which contradicts the potential applicability of any such exclusion,” the court stated.
Finally, the court rejected the employer’s argument that, because the IMWL is patterned on the FLSA, it should be interpreted the same way. The court stated, “It is the dominion of the legislature to enact laws and the courts to construe them, and we can neither restrict nor enlarge the meaning of an unambiguous statute.” While interpretations of the FLSA are persuasive with respect to parallel provisions of state law, the court said the IMWL and the FLSA are not parallel on this point.
What the Ruling Means for Employers
The ruling by the Illinois high court could have significant practical implications for employers as Illinois becomes the latest state to find that the PPA’s preliminary and postliminary activities exclusion does not apply to state law.
Next Steps
Employers in Illinois may want to review their timekeeping and compensation practices, considering mandatory pre- and post-shift activities. The Illinois high court’s ruling states that the IMWL requires employers to pay employees for “all time [they are] required to be on duty, or on the employer’s premises, or at other prescribed places of work.” At the same time, the preliminary and postliminary exclusion continues to bar employee wage-and-hour claims for pre- and post-shift activities under the federal FLSA.
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