The Illinois State Legislature wrapped up another busy year enacting and amending a wide range of employment laws. This alert provides an overview of what Illinois employers need to know about key legal developments that may affect their compliance obligations, including new leave entitlements and paid break time for nursing mothers, as well as significant changes to the Workplace Transparency Act and Illinois Victims Economic Security and Safety Act.
Effective 1 June 2026, the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (NICLA), Public Act 104-0259, requires employers with more than 15 employees to provide for unpaid leave while any child of an employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Employers with 16 to 50 employees must provide up to of 10 days of unpaid NICLA leave and employers with more than 50 employees must provide up to 20 days of unpaid NICLA leave. A “child” is defined as an employee’s son or daughter who is a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis.
NICLA leave is unpaid and is in addition to any leave provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Employees must first exhaust their FMLA leave entitlement and are then able to use NICLA leave if their child remains in the NICU. Similar to the FMLA, employees may take leave on a continuous or intermittent basis. However, employers may not require an...
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