Paid Leave for All Workers Expanded Information Page

Issues in Librarianship

Definition.

The PLAW Act is a "paid leave for all workers" law. With few exceptions, it requires that an employee who works in Illinois be eligible to earn up to 40 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12-month period. It stipulates that this leave may be taken for "any reason."

Quick Facts

Compliance at a Glance

Exemptions at a Glance

The law applies to everyone with at least one employee in the state of Illinois, with a few exceptions:

 

 

Details

Click on a sentence to expand for more information. Click on individual words and phrases for a definition.

Making & Enforcing Your Leave Policy

You grant the hours.

  • Your library may frontload this leave or have staff accrue leave as they go. You may also frontload leave for one class of employee and accrue for another class if your paid leave policy or policies meet all of the requirements of the law.

    • Accrual. Your employees are entitled to earn and use up to 40 hours of paid time during a 12-month period. Paid leave under the PLAW Act accrues at the rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked up to a maximum of 40 hours—though your library is permitted to provide more than 40.
    • Frontloading. Your library may choose to provide the full 40 hours of leave at the beginning of the applicable 12-month period as a block grant.

  • Your library must choose one of the following ways to deal with unused PLAW Act leave at the end of the 12-month period:

    • Wipe out unused frontloaded hours. If your library chooses to "front load" PLAW Act leave by providing the 40 hours at the beginning of the 12-month period, then you do NOT need to allow employees to carry over unused PLAW Act leave to the next 12-month period.
    • Rollover unused accrued hours. However, if your library chooses to have staff accrue paid time off as they work, then staff must be permitted to carry over any unused time to the next 12-month period.
      • Regardless of the amount carried over, the law only requires employers to allow a staff member to use up to 40 hours of PLAW time each 12-month period. This is to ensure that employees do not have to go through another waiting period until they have earned enough time to take off.
    • Payout of unused accrued hours. You and the employee may agree mutually, in writing and on an annual basis, that unused paid PLAW leave will be paid out to the employee at the end of the 12-month period instead of being carried over into the new 12-month period.

They take the leave.

  • Employees can request to take paid leave orally, in writing, or per your library's paid leave policy.

    • New staff. Regardless of whether your library chooses frontloading or accrual, a new employee must be permitted to begin to take PLAW Act leave 90 days after employment starts. This applies to both full-time and part-time employees.
    • Reasons for taking leave. Staff can use this time off for any reason of their choosing. In fact, you can't ask employees why they're taking leave.
      • No requiring documentation. Your library cannot require documentation or certification to prove the employee's need/reason for the leave. However, staff may volunteer that information—so long as they are not pressured to do so.
    • Advance notice. The law says that an employer can require an employee to give seven calendar days' notice if the need for leave is foreseeable.
      • However, if the need for leave is not foreseeable, the employee need only provide as much notice as is practicable, which can mean no notice at all. Even in cases of unforeseeable leave-taking, the law prohibits employers from asking employees why they are taking the leave or for any documentation supporting the need.

  • Employers do have the ability to consider (and deny) leave requests.

    • Denying requests. Employers can deny PLAW Act leave requests when they interfere with meeting operational needs.
    • Making a policy. The new rules indicate that employers can establish a policy for denying leave requests for "operational needs." This policy must:
      • Be written
      • Be posted
      • Be consistently applied to all employees.
      • Include a comprehensive list of circumstances when a request would be denied.
      • Actually allow employees sufficient opportunities to use their leave in the 12-month period. (It can't be prohibitively strict or complex.)
    • Finding coverage. It is the employer's responsibility to find staff to cover for an employee on PLAW leave. You may not require an employee to search for or locate a replacement worker to cover the employee's use of paid leave time. [see 820 ILCS 192/15]

  • Employers may set minimum increments and provide multiple leave banks, both of which staff should consider when using their PLAW Act leave.

    • Multiple banks. If your library provides two or more "banks" of time off for staff, the employee may choose the "bank" of leave which they want "charged" for the time off.
      • Of course, if the employee selects another bank of time off, they would need to comply with your library's requirements for using that banked time. For example, if the employee elects to use time from their "sick bank," and under the applicable policy, they must present a doctor's note. Such documentation can be required if the employee uses their sick bank instead of their PLAW bank.
    • Minimum increments. Your library can require staff to take off no less than two hours at a time, but you can't mandate that those hours be consecutive. The law allows, for instance, an employee to come in one hour late and leave one hour early for a total of two hours' leave. However, the law doesn't mandate a minimum; your library can allow them to take one or even half an hour.

 

Providing Access to Documents 

This is required by the PLAW Act, but it's also a best practice for exempt employers.

Communicating & Recording

  • Communicate the law and your policy to all staff.

    Your library is exempt if your paid time off policy meets the following criteria: Your library must post a summary of the PLAW Act requirements in a conspicuous place where notices are customarily kept. The library is also required to provide a written notice summarizing the requirements of the PLAW Act and information about how to file a charge with the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL). The notice is available on the Department of Labor's website. Your library must give this notice to employees who commence employment after Jan. 1, 2024. Then, the notice can be a standalone document or included in the Employee Handbook distributed to all employees. You must provide, in writing, to all staff your PLAW Act leave policies for
    • Granting leave (accrual or frontloading)
    • Rollover or payouts (if using accrual)
    • Advance notice requirements
    • Minimum increments
    • Considering requests
    • Circumstances when requests may be denied for operational needs.

  • Your library must keep records documenting hours worked, leave accrued and taken, and the remaining balance for three (3) years. You must also allow the Illinois Department of Labor access to those records.

    This is important (not just to stay compliant but also because you could get challenged). The statute of limitations for the PLAW Act is three (3) years from the date of the alleged violation. Well-kept records may protect you from penalties.

 

Checking & Keeping Exempt Status

Find out if you're exempt.

  • If your library already had a similar policy in effect, you're exempt so long as the policy meets certain requirements. That means your library can continue to use some provisions that would not be allowed if drafting a new policy, like those relating to advance notice, the minimum increments for use, and being required to give a reason for the absence.

    Your library is exempt if your paid time off policy meets the following criteria:
    • It was in effect before Jan. 1, 2024.
    • It provides a minimum of 40 hours of paid leave.
    • It gives the employees the discretion to take leave for any reason.
    • It allows staff to begin accruing leave after 90 days of employment.
    • If part-time staff have been excluded from this policy, you must now include them.

  • If your library staff are unionized, the library may not be covered by the PLAW Act.

    Your library is not covered by the PLAW Act in the following circumstances:
    • Your new collective bargaining agreement waives the PLAW Act's requirements. This waiver must be set forth explicitly in such agreement in unambiguous terms, meaning the parties should refer specifically to the statute.
    • Your current collective bargaining agreement was still in effect as of Jan. 1, 2024. The law states that nothing in the PLAW Act shall change the terms or affect the validity of a bona fide collective bargaining agreement in effect as of Jan. 1, 2024. (A previous version of our page said that the law doesn’t apply to employees in a collective bargaining agreement with a state agency, but the rules show the same stipulations for them as for anyone else in a collective bargaining agreement.)

  • If you are covered by a county or municipality ordinance that meets certain requirements, you are exempt and do not need to provide additional paid leave. If the ordinance does not meet the right criteria, you are not exempt and must still provide 40 hours of paid leave as the law dictates.

    A qualifying ordinance meets the following criteria:
    • It requires the employer to provide any form of paid leave (even if not minimally compliant).
    • That policy was in effect as of Jan. 1, 2024. (If a municipality or county enacts or amends a local law or ordinance to provide paid leave time, including paid sick leave, after Jan. 1, 2024, and the local law or ordinance provides equal or greater paid leave benefits, rights, and remedies than the Act, then the employer shall comply with the local law or ordinance. If the local law or ordinance provides less paid leave benefits, rights, or remedies than the Act, then the employer shall comply with the minimum requirements of the Act.)
    • Non-qualifying ordinances are those that:
      • Come from a county or municipality that has "opted out"
      • Do not require paid leave

  • In addition to organizations fitting the above criteria, the Illinois Department of Labor provides a list of employees exempt from the PLAW Act.

    The Act has limited and specific exemptions:
    • Independent contractors, generally
    • Certain railroad and airline employees
    • Some short-term, temporary employees of institutions of higher education
    • College/university students who are employed part-time by their school
    • Some short-term, temporary employees of institutions of higher education
    • Employees in the construction industry covered by a collective bargaining agreement
    • Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement with an employer that provides delivery, pickup, and transportation services
    • Employees of school districts organized under the School Code
    • Employees of park districts organized under the Park District Code

 

Penalties for Noncompliance

  1. First, if an employee believes they are covered under the PLAW Act, and they believe their employer has not complied with the PLAW Act, the employee can file a complaint with the IDOL. The applicable statute of limitations will be three (3) years from the date of the alleged violation.  If, after investigation, the IDOL finds cause to believe the law has been violated, the matter will be referred to an Administrative Law Judge for a formal hearing. 
  2. Second, employers who fail to abide by the law, including its record-keeping requirements, can be liable to each affected employee for up to $1,000 in civil penalties, as well as damages in the form of underpayment, compensatory damages, equitable relief, reasonable attorney's fees, witness fees, and other costs of maintaining an action against the employer. 
  3. Third, violations will subject your library to a penalty of up to $2,500 for each separate violation of the Act. Penalty money will go into a "Paid Leave for All Workers Fund" that will be used to enforce the PLAW Act.

 

Glossary

  • 12-month period. This need not be a calendar year. Your library may choose the start of the consecutive 12-month period for the beginning of a fiscal year, calendar year, or employment anniversaries. The library must provide this period's start date to employees in writing at the time of hire.  If your library changes the 12-month period, you must provide documentation to the employee, including their balance of paid leave accrued and taken and the remaining balance.
  • Frontload. This refers to making available the minimum number of hours of paid leave time, subject to pro rata requirements provided in 820 ILCS 192/15(b), to an employee on the first day of employment or the first day of the 12-month period. [See 820 ILCS 192/15(c)]
  • IDOL. The Illinois Department of Labor. This is the department in charge of enforcing the PLAW Act.
  • Leave bank. A leave bank is an accumulated or granted chunk of time off hours. Some organizations offer multiple leave banks, such as sick time, vacation time, and personal time.
  • Minimum Increment. This is the minimum amount of time off that an employee is allowed to take in a calendar day. The PLAW Act allows employers to set a two-hour minimum increment, but it stipulates that these hours need not be consecutive.
  • Operational needs. This is the only acceptable reason for denying employees' PLAW Act leave requests. The IDOL does not provide examples, but these could include circumstances when granting a PLAW leave request would mean closing the library on a normal business day, putting staff or patrons in danger, or violating other laws.
    • If you want to be able to deny a request for leave, it is best to have a clear written policy for employees that spells out in as much detail and with as many examples as you can fathom the circumstances under which it may deny the leave.
  • In writing, written. This refers to a printed or printable communication in physical or electronic format, including a communication transmitted through email, text message, or a computer system or otherwise sent or stored electronically. [see 820 ILCS 192/10]
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