42 percent of private sector workers do not have access to any sick time.

SUMMARY OF COOK COUNTY EARNED SICK TIME ORDINANCE

For every 40 hours worked, the employee accrues 1 hour of sick time.
1 Sick Day earned after 8 weeks of fulltime work
5 Sick Days earned after 40 weeks of fulltime work
Full-time and part-time employees earn sick time at a proportional rate based on hours worked.
Applies to employees who have worked for an employer for at least 80 hours within a 120-day period.
Employees can use sick time they have earned 6 months after their date of hire.
Allow employees to use earned sick time: 1) for an employees or family members illness or preventive care; 2)
if an employee or family member is the victim of domestic or sexual violence; 3) due to a public health
emergency an employees place of business is closed or the employee needs to care for a child whose school has
been closed.
The minimum amount of accrued sick time an employee may use is four hours per day.
If an employer has a paid time off (PTO) policy that may be used for the same purposes as earned sick time, and
meets the requirements under the ordinance, the employer does not have to provide more sick time.
Retaliation by employer is prohibited i.e. punish or deny the exercise of or attempt to exercise.
Employees who rely on gratuities shall be paid the full minimum wage when using sick time.

Allow employees to carry over half of unused accrued sick time, up to 20 hours (2.5 days), to the following year.
If employer is subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a covered employee shall be allowed to
carry over up to 40 hours of unused accrued sick time to use exclusively for an FMLA-eligible purpose.

Union workforce: Will not apply to employers with unionized workforces until the expiration of their collective
bargaining agreement (CBA). Unionized employees may explicitly waive the earned sick leave requirements via
future collective bargaining agreements. Will not apply to employees in the construction industry covered by a
CBA.

Does not apply to government employees.

An employer may require employees to give not less than 7 days notice before the date that earned sick time will
be taken if that is foreseeable.
For more than three consecutive work days, an employer may require certification that the use of sick time was
authorized.

An employer may not require that the employee find a replacement worker to cover the hours during which the
employee is on earned sick leave.
An employer is not required to provide financial or other reimbursement to an employee upon separation from
employment for accrued earned sick time that the employee has not used.

An employer may take disciplinary action if an employee uses sick time for a purpose not in the law.

Employers must post a notice and provide written notice to employees regarding their rights to earned sick time.
Enforcement Agency is Cook County Commission on Human Rights.
An employee may bring a civil action against an employer for a violation of this ordinance.
Effective date is July 1, 2017.
This ordinance will allow 420,000 workers in Suburban Cook County to earn up to 40 hours of sick time a
year in addition to the 450,000 Chicago workers covered by the Chicago Earned Sick Time Ordinance.