A law designed to provide workplace flexibility to family caregivers has been signed into law in Illinois.
The law, House Bill 6162, termed the Employee Sick Leave Act, permits employees to use up to six months of earned sick leave benefits for caregiving responsibilities, rather than restricting them to using that leave for their own health-related issues. It passed the legislature with bipartisan support, and has been signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Among the bill's main provisions are the definition of "family member" to include child, spouse, sibling, grandchild, in-law, grandparent or stepparent, and the requirement that employees be permitted to use six months of accrued sick leave benefits to provide care for a family member's illness, injury or medical appointment.
Recommended For You
In addition, the law provides that all of an employer's conditions and policies around sick leave benefits continue to apply, and that this flexibility does not change employee rights under the Family Medical Leave Act, state family leave law, or the employer's disability plan.
According to AARP, which was an advocate for the bill, 60 percent of caregivers in the United States are working, and 56 percent of those work full time. Six out of 10 caregivers, it added, say that their caregiving responsibilities have compelled them to take a range of actions regarding their jobs — including cutting back on hours, changing jobs or quitting altogether.
Illinois is not the first state to pass a law allowing employees to use their accrued sick time to care for family members, although it's now a member of a select minority. The Journal of the American Society on Aging pointed out early this year, before the Illinois bill's passage, that "Four states (California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon), the District of Columbia, one county, and 19 cities have laws that guarantee workers the right to earn and use paid sick days; twenty-one of these paid sick days laws have been adopted within the last three years, and one has been expanded."
And now Illinois has joined the club. Its law, Public Act 99-0841, will go into effect on Jan. 1.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
