Illinois enacts mandatory paid leave 'for any reason'
Source: AP
By CLAIRE SAVAGE
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law on Monday that will take effect next year.
Starting Jan. 1, Illinois employers must offer workers paid time off based on hours worked, with no need to explain the reason for their absence as long as they provide notice in accordance with reasonable employer standards.
Just Maine and Nevada mandate earned paid time time off and allot employees the freedom to decide how to use it, but Illinois’ law is further reaching, unencumbered by limits based on business size. Similarly structured regulations that require employers to offer paid sick leave exist in 14 states and Washington, D.C., but workers can only use that for health-related reasons.
Illinois employees will accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked up to 40 hours total, although the employer may offer more. Employees can start using the time once they have worked for 90 days. Seasonal workers will be exempt, as will federal employees or college students who work non-full-time, temporary jobs for their university.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/mandatory-paid-leave-work-illinois-law-435fabf7f5ce88d9ca9f1df692dadc2d
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Well full time federal workers already get annual (vacation) time per pay period (80 hours) on a scale that increases with time on the job. I.e., 4 hours per PP for 1-3 years, 6 hours per PP for 3-15 years, and 8 hours per PP for 15+ years. With that, you can only carry over 240 hours each calendar year - "use or lose" (although certain management positions can carry over upwards of 720 hours I think).
Kudos to Illinois!!! 
There is a formula for part-time vs regular FTEs so there is some leave that can be earned. Temps are a different matter as are contractors.
I actually had enough sick leave to add on something like a 1.5 months towards my time-in-service for my annuity calc. And the lump sum for my carried-over AL let me pay off my car note!
It wasn't until after I had a hysterectomy that I could actually start accumulating SL... and then when we could do more work-at-home days, I could save even more time because I often could manage to drag down the steps to flick on the 'puter to do something, whereas it would have been a no-go trying to get dressed, do the 45 minute commute into work sick, and try to get anything done while completely miserable with people who had nothing better to do standing around my desk bugging me. I know a number of my former (male) bosses and coworkers often ended up retiring with something like 3000 hours of sick leave, although others who accumulated that much ended up using a lot of it for stuff like bypass surgeries or kidney stones, etc.
I also had co-workers who were naturalized citizens who would save up their AL and carry-over enough to take 6 weeks off to go back to their original home countries to stay for at least a month with family they had there (in some cases, their elderly parents). Had at least 3 who did that!
I agree that this law will be a game-changer for some in IL - particularly employees of small businesses as other state laws and even local ordinances like here in Philly, exempt businesses under some certain threshold size.
