Good things are happening! Chicago mandates paid vacation and sick leave for workers, wages go up for auto workers, Big Oil’s plans for the hazardous Uinta Basin Railway along the Colorado River are stopped in court, and Michigan takes bold action on climate.
Workers in Chicago will now be guaranteed vacation time, thanks to a sweeping new law passed by the city council last week. The ordinance — which Chicago’s progressive new mayor, Brandon Johnson, touted as “the most progressive paid leave legislation in the U.S.” — is among some of the first laws in the nation to require that employers give their workers paid vacation leave.
The new law, which will take effect in January, guarantees full-time workers 10 days of paid time off a year — five days of sick time, and five days of unqualified paid leave. All part-time workers, meanwhile, will accrue one hour of sick leave and one hour of paid leave per 35 hours worked, up to 10 days total. There are virtually no exceptions: All workers within city limits who work at least two hours in any given two-week period are covered, according to the law.
Chicago’s ordinance is part of a recent, growing push to guarantee paid time off for workers in the “no-vacation nation.” Federal law in the U.S. does not require such paid leave. Until recently, no state did, either. That changed in 2021, when limited paid leave requirements were passed in Maine and Nevada. This year, Illinois passed a similar law — though it...
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