On March 13, 2023, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLAWA) into law, guaranteeing all workers in the state of Illinois 40 hours of paid time off each year for any reason. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2024, so employers need to use the remaining months of 2023 to ensure they are prepared for compliance with the new law.
Illinois is now the third state to enact such a law, following Maine and Nevada.
In Depth
PLAWA COVERAGE
PLAWA has broad coverage, applying to all employers that have at least one employee in the state of Illinois. There are limited exceptions: i.e., employees in the construction and parcel delivery industry covered by a collective bargaining agreement are excluded from coverage. PLAWA also does not apply to independent contractors.
There is an issue of coordinating PLAWA with existing paid leave provisions under local law for employees in Chicago or elsewhere in Cook County. PLAWA excludes “any employer that is covered by a municipal or county ordinance…that requires employers to give any form of paid leave to their employees, including paid sick leave or paid leave.”
Since Chicago and Cook County already have ordinances ensuring paid sick leave for certain employees, compliance with those ordinances may satisfy employers’ obligations under PLAWA. Interestingly, the plain meaning of this language excludes employers who have any employees covered by the Chicago or Cook County paid leave mandates from...
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