Paid Leave for All Workers Act Now in Effect
Share this post
All Illinois Workers Now Eligible for Paid Leave
Workers in Illinois will begin earning paid time off on January 1, 2024. This Paid Leave for All Workers Act allows workers to earn up to five (5) days or 40 hours of leave from work each year. Workers can use paid leave for any reason. Employers may not require workers to provide a basis for their time off request. Workers earn one (1) hour of paid leave for every 40 hours they work. If an employer has an existing policy, certain exceptions may apply. There are certain categories of workers that are not subject to the law.
Starting on March 31st, 2024, or 90 days following commencement of employment, workers can begin using their earned time off for any reason. They are not required to provide documentation to their employer under the Paid Leave for Workers Act.
Workers will be paid their full wage while on leave and tipped workers will be paid the minimum wage in their respective locale. An employer cannot require an employee to find their replacement for the leave.
This law applies to every employee working for an employer in Illinois, including domestic workers, but does exclude certain categories of workers that are not subject to the law. For more details visit https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/paidleave.html
The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) has published the final regulations interpreting the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act (the “Act”) which took effect four months earlier on January 1, 2024. The final regulations took effect immediately on April 30, 2024. In the regulations, IDOL has backed off from some of the positions taken in the initial set of proposed regulations from November 2023, but has re-affirmed other interpretations of the Act. The regulations also include a number of examples to help clarify the meaning and impact of these rules. Since it is likely that Illinois employers already made compliance decisions for January 1, they should revisit their policies and procedures to ensure that their selected approaches are still warranted in light of the final regulations.