We believe that banks are considered retail establishments for purposes of the Restroom Access Act, but not the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance.

The Restroom Access Act — which requires retail establishments to allow customers to use an employee restroom under certain circumstances — applies to “a place of business open to the general public for the sale of goods or services.” Given this broad definition, we believe bank branches open to the public and offering banking services are subject to the Restroom Access Act.

Conversely, the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance — which applies to seven covered industries, including “retail” — uses a narrower definition of “retail”: “any entity that is engaged primarily in the sale of consumer goods,” such as “electronics, groceries and household items.” Since banks are not engaged primarily in the sale of consumer goods, we do not believe they are retail establishments subject to the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

• Restroom Access Act, 410 ILCS 39/10 (“A retail establishment that has a toilet facility for its employees shall allow a customer to use that facility during normal business hours if the toilet facility is reasonably safe and all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The customer requesting the use of the employee toilet facility suffers from an eligible medical condition or utilizes an ostomy device.

(2) Three or more employees of the retail establishment are working at the time the customer requests use of the employee toilet facility.

(3) The retail establishment does not normally make a restroom available to the public.

(4) The employee toilet facility is not located in an area where providing access would create an obvious health or safety risk to the customer or an obvious security risk to the retail establishment.

(5) A public restroom is not immediately accessible to the customer.”)

• Restroom Access Act, 410 ILCS 39/5 (“‘Retail establishment’ means a place of business open to the general public for the sale of goods or services. ‘Retail establishment’ does not include a filling station or service station, with a structure of 800 square feet or less, that has an employee toilet facility located within that structure.”)

• Chicago.gov, Fair Workweek (“The Fair Workweek Ordinance goes into effect on July 1, 2020. Employees are covered by the ordinance if they work in one of seven ‘covered’ industries (Building Services, Healthcare, Hotels, Manufacturing, Restaurants, Retail, and Warehouse Services), they make less than $26/hour or $50,000/year, and the employer has at least 100 employees globally (250 employees and 30 locations for a restaurant.”)

• Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance, 1-25-020 Definitions (“Employer’ means any individual, natural person, corporation, nonprofit corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, business trust, estate, trust ,association, joint venture, agency, instrumentality, any other legal or commercial entity, whether domestic or foreign, or any person or group or persons who, directly or indirectly (including through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity) employs or exercises control over the wages, hours or working conditions of one or more Employees within the below listed and defined industries:

(i) Day and temporary labor service agencies as defined by 820 ILCS 175/5;

(ii) Hotels as defined by 4-6-180 of the Chicago Municipal Code;

(iii) Restaurants as defined-herein; (iv) Building services as defined herein;

(v) Healthcare Facility or Program as defined herein;

(vi) Manufacturing as defined herein;

(vii) Airports as defined herein;

(viii) Warehouses as defined herein;

(xi) Retail as defined herein;

(x) Childcare as defined herein.”)

• Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance, 1-25-020 Definitions (“‘Retail’ means any entity that is engaged primarily in the sale of consumer goods. For the purposes of this definition, ‘consumer goods’ means products that are primarily for personal, household, or family purposes, including but not limited to appliances, clothing, electronics, groceries, and household items. Retail shall include ‘filling stations’ as defined by 4-108-010 of the Chicago Municipal Code.”)