Cook County, Illinois, Earned Sick Leave Law Goes Into Effect July 1, 2017

Most employers in Cook County, Illinois, will begin offering employees Earned Sick Leave beginning July 1, 2017.  This is following numerous other cities and states which have implemented earned sick leave laws over the last few years to accommodate employee needs to take care of themselves and their families in the event of health issues or certain other situations.

What is Covered by the Earned Sick Leave Law

Earned sick leave hours are to be used when an employee or family member is:

• Ill or receiving medical care/treatment
• In need of help or support resulting from domestic violence or stalking
• Affected by a public health emergency which may close work, school or daycare

What Employees are Covered

The law impacts most employers who have a place of business in Cook County.  In addition, the law applies to employees who work at least two hours in any two-week period.

How Does It Work

 Employees will earn one hour of Sick Leave for every 40 hours worked.  The maximum number of hours an employee may accrue and use during any year is 40.  Employees may carry over up to half of their unused hours from year-to-year up to a maximum of 20 hours.

Employer Responsibilities

Employers may do the following:

• Impose written rules for the minimum increments of time (4 hours or less) in which Earned Sick Leave may be used.
• Impose written rules concerning the type and timing of notice required for absences.
• Impose written rules affecting the minimum duration of employment before an employee is initially able to use sick leave (not to exceed 180 days)

Employers may not do the following:

• Retaliate against employees who use the Earned Sick Leave
• Require an employee to find a replacement to cover their work while out on Earned Sick Leave

Posting Requirement

All businesses within Cook County must display the new Employee Sick Leave Ordinance notice.

Employers are also required to display specific state and federal labor compliance laws, all of which are available on the all in one Illinois Labor Law Poster.

The Labor Law Center offers a worry-free service to our customers through our Poster Service Plan with automatic replacements.  What this means is that we monitor the state and federal postings and automatically send you updates when they are released.  It is that simple!

We also offer our clients our newly updated Education Center.  If you are new to labor law compliance or just wanting to keep up with the latest news and changes as they come out, this is the place to bookmark and visit regularly.