New Employee Sick Leave Act Supports Families, Creates Flexibility for Workers Caring for Loved Ones
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago 16th) announced that her Employee Sick Leave Act has been signed into law. The legislation, which she sponsored in the Senate while Representative Andrew Skoog (D-Peru) spearheaded it in the House, requires employers to give their workers greater flexibility in the way they use their sick time. Once the new law takes effect on Jan. 1, any company that provides sick leave to employees must allow them to use up to half of their allotted time to attend to the medical needs of family members.
“Millions of Illinois workers are caregivers contributing to society not only by performing their paid jobs, but also by caring for their young children, adult children with disabilities, older relatives or chronically ill family members,” Collins said. “Restricting the use of sick time to the worker’s own medical needs has pushed countless women and men out of the workforce or forced them to cut back on hours in order to care for loved ones.”
Most Illinois employers that provide sick time allow their workers to use it only for themselves. But an estimated 1.5 million Illinoisans serve as caregivers for family members, and 60 percent of these caregivers also work outside the home. When employees can’t use sick time to take an elderly parent to a medical appointment or stay home with a child who has the flu, they risk losing their jobs. With greater unemployment among caregivers come higher poverty rates and more families dependent on Medicaid and other social services. House Bill 6162 allows an employee to use up to half of his or her existing sick leave to care for a child, spouse, sibling, parent, grandparent, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law or step-parent.
“We know too many families in our state are struggling to become and remain employed, stay in their homes, put food on the table and care for one another,” Collins said. “By expanding the flexibility of sick time use for workers already entitled to those hours, we are easing the pressure on workers without burdening businesses – and we’re helping employers retain healthy employees with healthy families.”
