The Chicago City Council amended its Paid Sick Leave Ordinance to expand the reasons to take paid leave.  Chicago employers are to provide eligible employees up to 40 hours of paid sick leave in each 12-month period for the following reasons (expanded reasons underlined) effective August 1, 2021:

• The employee is ill or injured, or for the purpose of receiving professional care, including preventive care, diagnosis, or treatment, for medical, mental, or behavioral issues, including substance use disorders;
• A covered employee’s family member is ill, injured, or ordered to quarantine, or to care for a family member receiving professional care, including preventive care, diagnosis, or treatment, for medical, mental, or behavioral issues, including substance use disorders;
• The employee or a family member of the covered employee is the victim of domestic violence, or a sex offense, or trafficking in persons; or
• The covered employee's place of business is closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency, or the covered employee needs to care for a family member whose school, class, or place of care has been closed.

Beginning August 1, 2021, a covered employee can take leave for the following new reason:

• The Governor of Illinois, the Chicago Department of Public Health, or a treating healthcare provider requires the employee to either:
• stay at home to minimize the transmission of a communicable disease;
• remain at home while experiencing symptoms or sick with a communicable disease;
• obey a quarantine order issued to the covered employee; or
• obey an isolation order issued to the covered employee.

The Ordinance requires and the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection has provided a notice explaining the current minimum wage under Chicago’s minimum wage ordinance; the rights under the paid sick leave ordinance; and information about human trafficking.

The notice must be posted in the workplace, provided with the employee’s first paycheck and then provided annually within 30 days of July 1.  

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