FMLA leave is not paid in Illinois. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects your job and your health insurance for up to 12 weeks, but it does not require your employer to keep issuing paychecks while you are out. Illinois does not have a state-run paid family and medical leave program either. What you can do is combine several other sources of income so the time off is not entirely unpaid: the 40 hours guaranteed by the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act, your accrued vacation or sick time, and short-term disability insurance if you carry it.
Why FMLA Itself Is Unpaid
The FMLA gives eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for a serious health condition, to bond with a new child, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, or for certain military family needs. Leave to care for a covered servicemember or recent veteran can run up to 26 weeks.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
The statute is a job-protection law. Your position (or an equivalent one with the same pay and benefits) waits for you, and any benefits you had already earned stay intact.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2614 – Employment and Benefits Protection The paycheck side of things is left to other laws, your employer’s policies, and any insurance you carry.
To be covered in the first place, your employer must have 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your worksite, you must have worked there at least 12 months, and you must have logged at least 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months before your leave. Public agencies and public and private K-12 schools are covered no matter their size.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act
The Paid Leave for All Workers Act (820 ILCS 192) gives nearly every employee in the state a floor of paid time off that can be used for any reason, including the same medical and family situations covered by FMLA. You accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year. Accrual starts on your first day of work, and you can begin using the hours after 90 days.4FindLaw. Illinois Code 820 – Employment 192/15 Provision of Paid Leave
Those 40 hours can be used at the same time as FMLA leave, converting roughly one workweek of your absence from unpaid to paid at your regular rate. Running them alongside FMLA does not extend your 12 weeks; the paid hours run concurrently.
Unused hours generally carry over to the next year, but your employer does not have to let you use more than 40 in any 12-month period. If your employer frontloads the full 40 hours at the start of the year instead of using accrual, it can require you to use them before the year ends. Unused leave under the Act typically is not paid out when you leave the job, unless your employer credits the hours to a general vacation or PTO bank, in which case ordinary Illinois vacation-payout rules apply.5Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 820 ILCS 192 – Paid Leave for All Workers Act
If You Work in Chicago or Cook County
The state Act does not apply where a local paid-leave ordinance was already in effect when the state law took effect.4FindLaw. Illinois Code 820 – Employment 192/15 Provision of Paid Leave Chicago’s Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance is more generous, providing one hour of paid leave for every 35 hours worked (up to 40 hours) plus a separate bank of paid sick leave accrued at the same rate (up to another 40 hours).6City of Chicago. Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance Cook County has its own Paid Leave Ordinance covering most suburban municipalities that have not opted into the state Act.7Cook County. Paid Leave Ordinance and Regulations If you work in either jurisdiction, the local accrual rate and rules are what you actually get.
Who Is Not Covered
A handful of workers fall outside the state Act: employees covered by the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act or the Railway Labor Act, certain part-time college students working for their own school, short-term higher-education employees, construction workers under a collective bargaining agreement, and employees under a collective bargaining agreement with a national package-delivery employer. School districts organized under the School Code and park districts organized under the Park District Code are also excluded as employers.8Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 820 ILCS 192 – Paid Leave for All Workers Act – Definitions and Exemptions
Using Accrued Vacation, Sick, or PTO Time
Federal FMLA regulations let you use accrued vacation, sick, or personal leave during FMLA leave so the time off is paid. Either you can choose to substitute paid leave, or your employer can require you to do it.9eCFR. 29 CFR 825.207 – Substitution of Paid Leave The paid leave and FMLA leave run at the same time; combining them does not add weeks.
Your employer’s internal policies decide which bank you draw from and in what order. A policy might, for example, require you to exhaust sick time before touching vacation. If you fail to follow the procedural rules of your employer’s paid leave policy, such as call-in requirements, you can lose the ability to use paid leave for that absence while still keeping the underlying FMLA job protection.9eCFR. 29 CFR 825.207 – Substitution of Paid Leave Once every paid leave bank is empty, the remaining FMLA weeks are unpaid.
Intermittent Leave
FMLA does not have to be taken in one continuous block. When it is medically necessary, you can take it a few days a week or a few hours a day. For hourly employees, you are paid only for the hours you actually work. For salaried employees who are exempt from overtime rules, your employer can deduct pay for the specific hours you miss without breaking your exempt status.10eCFR. 29 CFR 825.206 – Interaction with the FLSA Substituted paid leave can cover those partial-day absences.
Short-Term Disability and Employer Paid Leave Programs
For longer absences, particularly those tied to your own serious health condition or pregnancy, short-term disability insurance is usually the largest source of income. Illinois does not run a state short-term disability program, so coverage depends on an employer-sponsored plan or a policy you bought yourself. These plans typically replace between 40% and 70% of your regular income, start paying after a waiting period of about one to two weeks, and last several weeks to several months depending on the policy.
Some employers also offer separate paid parental leave or paid medical leave as a benefit, providing full or partial pay for a set number of weeks. Those benefits come from the terms of the employer’s policy or your employment contract, not from FMLA. When you receive disability payments or supplemental employer pay during an FMLA absence, your FMLA job protections continue to run alongside them.
Health Insurance Keeps Running During Unpaid Leave
Even when no paycheck is coming in, your employer must maintain your group health coverage during FMLA leave on the same terms as if you were still working.11eCFR. 29 CFR 825.209 – Maintenance of Employee Benefits Family coverage stays family coverage, and your share of the premium does not go up because you are on leave.12eCFR. 29 CFR 825.210 – Employee Payment of Group Health Benefit Premiums
You still owe the employee portion of the premium during the unpaid weeks. Your employer can collect it on your regular payroll schedule, on the COBRA payment schedule, or through another arrangement you both agree to, and it must give you advance written notice of how and when payments are due.12eCFR. 29 CFR 825.210 – Employee Payment of Group Health Benefit Premiums Budget for that: if you are running your leave on short-term disability or unpaid time, the premium still has to be paid out of pocket or through post-leave payroll deductions.
Putting It Together
A realistic pay picture for a 12-week FMLA leave in Illinois usually looks like a stack rather than a single source. Roughly one week is covered by the 40 hours from the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (or by the more generous Chicago or Cook County entitlements). Additional weeks can be covered by any accrued vacation, sick, or PTO time you have banked. If your leave is for your own medical condition or a pregnancy and you have short-term disability coverage, that policy replaces a portion of your income for the weeks it covers. Anything not paid by those sources is unpaid, and you keep your health insurance throughout as long as you continue paying your share of the premium.