AbsentEase
Illinois sick leave law & call-off rules
Illinois took a different road: the Paid Leave for All Workers Act isn't a sick leave law — it's 40 hours of paid leave for any reason, or no reason, and asking why is itself a violation. Chicago and suburban Cook County run their own ordinances instead (Chicago's means two separate 40-hour banks), and PLAWA doesn't apply where they do. Add mandatory vacation payout under the Wage Payment and Collection Act, and Illinois attendance policies need geographic awareness and careful bank design. Here is what applies in 2026.
Illinois at a glance
| Paid leave mandate | Yes — PLAWA: 40 hours/year for ANY reason, all employers |
|---|---|
| Asking why | Prohibited — no reason or documentation may be required for PLAWA/Paid Leave hours |
| Chicago | Two separate banks at 1:35 — 40h any-reason + 40h sick; payout of the any-reason bank at 51+ employees |
| Attendance points on protected leave | Barred — leave can't be a "negative factor" (820 ILCS 192/20) |
| Vacation at termination | Payout mandatory under the Wage Payment and Collection Act; use-it-or-lose-it unlawful |
| Final paycheck deadline | At separation if possible; no later than the next payday |
| Breaks (ODRISA) | 20-minute meal within the first 5 hours of a 7.5-hour shift + 24 hours' rest per week |
Is paid sick leave required in Illinois?
Yes — as any-reason paid leave. PLAWA (820 ILCS 192) covers all Illinois employers: 1 hour per 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours per 12 months, usable for anything with no reason given and no documentation permitted. But location matters: employees covered by the Chicago or Cook County ordinances fall under those instead. Chicago employees accrue at 1 hour per 35 worked into two separate banks — 40 hours of any-reason Paid Leave and 40 hours of Paid Sick Leave; Cook County mirrors PLAWA.
How Illinois's sick leave law works
| Jurisdiction | Accrual | Banks & caps | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois (PLAWA) | 1 per 40 worked | 40 hours, any reason | Prohibited — no reason may be asked |
| Chicago | 1 per 35 worked, each bank | 40h any-reason Paid Leave + 40h Paid Sick Leave | Sick bank only, after 3+ consecutive workdays; Paid Leave bank never |
| Cook County (suburban) | 1 per 40 worked | 40 hours, any reason | Prohibited |
Notice may be required — up to 7 days for foreseeable leave, as soon as practicable otherwise — but the reason may not. Chicago employers with 51+ covered employees must also pay out the unused any-reason Paid Leave bank at termination.
The anti-retaliation rule: 820 ILCS 192/20 bars considering PLAWA leave "as a negative factor" in any employment action — evaluation, promotion, discipline, or absence-control policies — and Chicago's ordinance carries the same prohibition for both banks.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Illinois
Illinois is at-will, and absences beyond the protected banks can be disciplined normally. What's different here is that the classic screening question — "why were you out?" — is off the table for PLAWA and Chicago Paid Leave hours: the employee doesn't owe you a reason, a note is illegal to request, and pointing the absence is a prohibited negative factor. The compliant pattern flips from evaluating reasons to tracking balances: an absence backed by available protected hours is untouchable; one that exceeds them is where your attendance policy lives. That demands precise, per-jurisdiction balance math (a crew that crosses the Chicago line accrues differently that day) and a clean call-off record for the absences that do count. Wage claims go to the Illinois Department of Labor. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system paired with accurate balances is what keeps the two categories provably separate.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | In full at separation if possible, and no later than the next regularly scheduled payday | 820 ILCS 115/5 |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday at the latest | 820 ILCS 115/5 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Earned vacation and PTO must be paid out; use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture is unlawful | IL Wage Payment and Collection Act |
| Unused PLAWA leave | No payout — unless it's credited to the vacation/PTO bank, which makes it payable; Chicago's any-reason bank pays out at 51+ covered employees | 820 ILCS 192; Chicago ch. 6-130 |
Bank design is the whole game in Illinois: PLAWA hours folded into a general PTO bank become payable wages at termination. Keeping the statutory leave in its own bank keeps it off that bill. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Illinois employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PLAWA / ordinance leave | Yes — paid | Per the jurisdiction table above |
| Meal break & weekly rest | Yes | ODRISA: 20 minutes within the first 5 hours of a 7.5+ hour shift, another 20 at 12 hours, and 24 consecutive hours of rest every week |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Up to 2 hours if working hours don't allow 2 free hours while polls are open; requested before election day |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Protected; night-shift workers can't be made to work while serving days |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Illinois protections |
The Illinois employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be state-protected sick time or FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.