Bill
HB 2978
Provides up to 10–20 days of job-protected, unpaid NICU leave for parents, with health-insurance continuation, reinstatement, and penalties for violations.
Status & timeline
- Introduced: Feb 6–18, 2025. Passed both chambers (third reading: June 1, 2025). Sent to Governor June 24, 2025. Approved by Governor Aug 15, 2025. Filed as Public Act 104‑0259.
- Effective date: June 1, 2026.
- Companion bill: SB 1354.
Purpose
- Establishes a job‑protected unpaid leave specifically for employees whose child is hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), to allow parents/caregivers time to be with and care for premature or critically ill infants.
Key provisions
- Eligibility and leave amount
- Employers with 16–50 employees: up to 10 days of unpaid neonatal intensive care leave while an employee’s child is a NICU patient.
- Employers with 51 or more employees: up to 20 days of unpaid neonatal intensive care leave.
- Leave may be taken continuously or intermittently. Employers may require minimum increments of not less than 2 hours.
- The employee is entitled to the lesser of (a) the statutory maximum number of days or (b) the length of the child’s NICU stay.
- Interaction with other leave
- Leave under this Act is additional to any Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave: employees entitled to FMLA who take FMLA leave may also take available leave under this Act upon completion of FMLA leave.
- Employers may not force employees to use paid leave instead of the leave provided by this Act; employees may voluntarily substitute paid leave (sick, vacation, etc.) for equivalent periods.
- Job and benefit protections
- Upon return, employees must be reinstated to their former or a substantially equivalent position with no loss of accrued benefits.
- Employers must maintain health insurance benefits during leave as if the employee had not taken leave.
- Employers may not require employees taking unpaid neonatal intensive care leave to provide a replacement worker.
- Verification and privacy
- Employers may require reasonable verification of the child’s length of stay in the NICU, but may not request confidential information protected by HIPAA or other law.
Enforcement & remedies
- Administered and enforced by the Illinois Department of Labor (DOL), which may adopt rules, investigate, subpoena, and refer contested matters to an administrative law judge.
- Employees alleging violations may file a complaint with DOL or bring a civil action within 60 days of the last event constituting the alleged violation.
- Civil penalties: employers violating the Act are subject to penalties not to exceed $5,000 per affected employee. A continuous NICU hospitalization period during which violations occur counts as a single violation.
- DOL may recover unpaid wages, damages and penalties; 20% of penalties collected are deposited into a newly created Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Fund (State Finance Act section added). The Attorney General may enforce collection.
Who is covered / affected
- "Employee" and "Employer" use the definitions in Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act and explicitly include State of Illinois employees and the State as an employer.
- "Child" includes biological, adopted, foster children, stepchildren, legal wards, and children for whom the employee stands in loco parentis.
- Applies only while the employee’s child is a patient in a NICU; leave amounts vary by employer size as noted above.
Potential impact
- Provides targeted, job‑protected time off for parents of NICU patients, with health‑insurance continuation and reinstatement protections. Employers must accommodate intermittent or continuous leave, may require limited verification, and face administrative and civil penalties for violations.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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