Add one more city to the country’s new era of the mandatory paid sick leave ordinance.
Recently, the Chicago City Council passed the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, effective next year on July 1, 2017. Covered employees, which are employees who work at least 80 hours for an employer within any 120-day period, can accrue hours of paid sick leave throughout each calendar year, and such hours can be utilized for themselves or definitive family members. Employee rights under this ordinance must be posted by the employer in a conspicuous place at each facility within the city limits.
Each covered employee will accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Covered employees, however, have a ceiling of 40 hours of paid sick leave for each 12-month period—unless the employer sets a higher limit—and accruement begins on the first calendar day of employment or on July 1, 2017, whichever day is later. At the end of the 12-month period, covered employees can carry over up to half of their unused paid sick leave time, with a limit of 20 hours. However, if the employer is subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act, employees can carry over up to 40 hours of their unused paid sick leave time exclusively for FMLA-eligible reasons.
Covered employees will be allowed to start using paid sick leave time no later than 180 days after the first day of employment, and they can utilize such time under the following circumstances: illness or injury of the employee or the employee’s family member; the employee or the employee’s family member is a victim of domestic violence or a sex offense; the employee’s place of business is closed by order of a public official or as result of a public health emergency, or the employee needs to tend to a child whose school or place of care has been closed because of a public health emergency.
Compliance Poster Company will create the workplace poster later next year.