Working Families in Illinois Need Comprehensive Paid Leave
At some point, nearly everyone will need to take time away from work to deal with a serious personal or family illness, or to care for a new child. But few workers have access to paid family and medical leave through their employers or to employer-provided short-term disability insurance. The passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993 was a first attempt at bridging the gap between work and family by providing 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible workers for parental leave, or for the serious illness of the employee or to care for her parent, spouse, or child at employers with 50 or more employees. But with fewer than half of workers qualifying for leave, and even more unable to sacrifice their paychecks, millions of people are faced with an impossible choice: work or family?
The Illinois Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act is a solution to this dilemma. It would provide employees with weeks of paid family and medical leave to be used to welcome a new child, to care for themselves or a family member when seriously ill, or for reasons related to military deployment or domestic violence and sexual assault. Additionally, this Act would broaden the definition of “family member” for whom a worker could take leave to care for to include any individual related by blood or whose close association with the worker is the equivalent of a family relationship.
Universal, comprehensive, and inclusive paid family and medical leave will benefit women, families, and communities in every corner of the state.