Illinois Family Military Leave Act: Eligibility and Job Rights

The Illinois Family Military Leave Act gives eligible employees up to 15 or 30 days of unpaid, job-protected leave when a spouse, parent, child, or grandparent is called to military service lasting more than 30 days under orders from the Governor or the President. The amount depends on employer size, you must use your accrued paid leave first, and the law works alongside federal FMLA military provisions that may add more time.

Who Qualifies

Eligibility runs on two tracks. You have to meet work-history thresholds, and your family member’s service has to meet the statute’s criteria.

Your Own Eligibility

Your employer must have at least 15 employees. You must have worked there for at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before the leave begins.¹ These are the same thresholds as the federal FMLA, so if you qualify federally, you likely qualify here.

The Family Member’s Service

The service member has to be called up for military service lasting more than 30 days with the state or federal government, under orders from the Governor or the President.¹ Covered relationships are spouse, parent, child, or grandparent.² The Illinois Administrative Code also includes civil union partners.³

Combat deployment is not required. Any qualifying service of more than 30 days under gubernatorial or presidential orders triggers the entitlement.

How Many Days You Get

The cap depends on your employer’s headcount:

15 to 50 employees: up to 15 days of unpaid leave while deployment orders are in effect.
More than 50 employees: up to 30 days of unpaid leave while deployment orders are in effect.¹²

Summaries that just say “30 days” get this wrong. Employees at smaller companies receive half that.

If you work for a larger employer, there is an offset. Any qualifying exigency leave you already took under the federal FMLA for the same deployment reduces the Illinois 30-day entitlement day for day. Use 5 days federally, and 25 remain under Illinois law.⁴

Notice and Certification

If your leave will run five or more consecutive workdays, give your employer at least 14 calendar days’ notice before it starts. For shorter stretches, give as much notice as you reasonably can, and try to schedule so operations aren’t unduly disrupted.¹

Your employer can request documentation from the appropriate military authority verifying the service and deployment.³ Have deployment orders or an official verification letter in hand before you submit the request. Missing paperwork can delay or block approval.

You Have to Burn Paid Leave First

This is the part employees most often miss. Before starting unpaid family military leave, you must exhaust all accrued vacation, personal leave, compensatory time, and any other paid leave your employer offers. Sick leave and disability leave are the only exceptions; you can keep those in reserve.¹³

In practice: two banked weeks of vacation count against your 15- or 30-day entitlement. You’ll be paid during those days at your normal rate, then shift to unpaid status for whatever remains. If you were saving vacation for something else, plan around that before the leave begins.

Getting Your Job Back

When your leave ends, your employer must restore you to the position you held before it started, or to an equivalent position with the same seniority, pay, benefits, and working conditions.¹ The narrow exception is when the employer can prove the failure to restore resulted from conditions completely unrelated to the leave, such as a company-wide layoff that eliminated the role.

Benefits While You’re Out

Your employer is not required to pay for your benefits during the leave. What the employer must do is allow you to continue those benefits at your own expense while you are out.⁵

You and your employer can also agree to something more generous. The statute doesn’t prevent an employer from picking up premiums during the leave; it simply doesn’t require it. Raise the question before your leave starts if benefits are a concern.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Employers cannot interfere with or retaliate against employees for taking family military leave. Firing, suspending, fining, demoting, or otherwise punishing you for exercising your rights is barred. The same protection covers you if you oppose a practice that violates the Act, such as reporting a denial of a coworker’s legitimate request.¹²

Keep copies of your leave request, the military certification you submitted, and any correspondence with your employer. If adverse action follows shortly after you return, that timing can itself support a claim.

How to Enforce Your Rights

Enforcement runs through the courts. If your employer violates the Act, your remedy is a civil lawsuit in the circuit court with jurisdiction over the dispute. The court can order the employer to stop the unlawful practice and grant equitable relief to make you whole, including reinstatement and back pay.⁵

There is no administrative complaint process at the Illinois Department of Labor for this particular statute. Consult an employment attorney early if you think your rights were violated.

Federal FMLA Leave You May Also Have

The Illinois entitlement is not the whole picture. Federal FMLA has two military-related categories that can supplement it.

Qualifying Exigency Leave

Eligible employees can take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid FMLA leave when a spouse, child, or parent is on covered active duty or has been notified of an impending call to covered active duty. Covered active duty means deployment to a foreign country for regular Armed Forces members, or a foreign deployment under a contingency operation call-up for National Guard and Reserve members.⁶

For Illinois employees at larger employers, remember the offset: FMLA qualifying exigency days used for the same deployment reduce the 30-day Illinois cap day for day.⁴ When state and federal law both apply, you get the benefit of whichever is more generous.⁶

Military Caregiver Leave

A separate federal entitlement kicks in when a service member has a serious injury or illness. FMLA military caregiver leave provides up to 26 workweeks of unpaid leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member. Eligible family members are the service member’s spouse, child, parent, or next of kin.⁷

That 12-month period starts the first day you use caregiver leave, and any other FMLA leave you take during that period counts against the 26-week cap.⁷ The Illinois Military Leave Act does not cover injury care and does not reduce this federal entitlement. If your family member returns wounded or ill, the federal caregiver provision offers far more time than the Illinois statute alone.

Federal FMLA violations can be investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, and you may also file a private civil action.⁸

1
Justia Law. Illinois Code 820 ILCS 151 – Military Leave Act
2
Office of the Illinois Attorney General. Illinois Family Military Leave Act Brochure
3
Legal Information Institute. Illinois Administrative Code tit. 80, 303.165 – Family Military Leave
4
Illinois General Assembly. Public Act 96-1417 – 820 ILCS 151
5
Illinois General Assembly. 820 ILCS 151 – Military Leave Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M – Using FMLA Leave Because of a Family Members Military Service
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M(a) – Military Caregiver Leave for a Current Servicemember under the Family and Medical Leave Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77B – Protection for Individuals under the FMLA