Chicago's Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave ordinance mandates that all Chicago employers provide paid leave, as well as paid sick and safe leave, to all covered employees. A covered employee is defined by Chicago as any employee who works 80 or more hours within any 120-day period, and within the geographical boundaries of Chicago.
Employees begin to accrue both paid leave and paid sick and safe leave on the first calendar day after they begin their employment. For every 35 hours worked, employees accrue one hour of paid leave and one hour of paid sick leave.
Leave policy rules
There are two paid leave policies required for employers of Chicago workers. You'll need to create two separate accruals, and assign them both to all covered employees working in Chicago.
Paid Leave
- Covered employees accrue 1 Hour of Paid Leave for every 35 hours worked
- Up to 40 hours of leave may be accrued in a 12-month period
- Minimum usage increment not to exceed 4 hours
- Paid Leave can be used for any reason
- Employee leave requests may be approved or denied by Employer
- Employers may set a probationary period of up to 90 days after start of employment
- Employees begin to accrue Paid Leave on the first calendar day after they begin their employment
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Employees may carryover up to 16 hours of Paid Leave (unless front loaded)
- Payout of unused Paid Leave is required for medium and large employers
Paid Sick and Safe Leave
- Covered employees accrue 1 Hour of Paid Leave for every 35 hours worked
- Up to 40 hours of leave may be accrued in a 12-month period
- Can be used to recover from illness, take care of family member, address domestic violence,
and public health emergencies - Can be used 30 days after start of employment
- Minimum usage increment not to exceed 2 hours
- Employees begin to accrue Paid Sick and Safe Leave on the first calendar day after they begin their employment
- Employees may carryover up to 80 hours of Sick and Safe Leave
- Payout of unused Sick and Safe Leave is not required
More information about this leave policy→
Updating public notice
Every employer must post (in a conspicuous place at each facility located in the City of Chicago) an up-to-date notice advising the Covered Employee of:
- Chicago Labor Laws (Minimum Wage, Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave, and Wage Theft)
- Fair Workweek (if applicable)
Need to update your posted notice? We've got you covered→
Creating a new accrual
You can create new leave policies for your company by going to Company, then Accrual Policies.
Click Add to open the accrual builder.
Use the accrual builder to create two separate leave policies, one for Paid Leave and another for Paid Sick and Safe Leave.
If you plan to frontload one or both of these accruals, you'll need to select Annual on anniversary date under "Select Type".
Note: Hours can not be set to expire unless frontloaded.
For each of these leave policies, employees must accrue at least 1 hour for every 35 hours worked. This equates to 1 ÷ 35, or .0286 hours per hour, minimum. You're allowed to cap this accrual at 40 hours within a year. You may customize this policy, provided it still meets the criteria set by Chicago.
Click Create when you're done.
Assigning accrual policies to employees
Once both accruals have been created, you can assign them to all Chicago employees using the steps in this article→
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