Cook County Earned Sick Pay Ordinance Summary

Cook County Earned Sick Pay Ordinance Summary

Effective: July 1, 2017

Accrual:

ALL employees accrue one hour for every forty (40) hours worked.
Even if you provide 5 days for a year, the method the employee receives the availability must be at least as soon as the law requires. Pay that is earnedlater in the year isnot satisfactory. Under this mandatory accrual system, full time employees will have earned the 40 hours by September each year, and it would be earned even earlier if the employee works a lot of overtime.
ALL part-time employees are eligible for the accrual
Even temporary and seasonal employees must accrue paid sick leave. The only exception is if an employee works so few hours that they are excluded. That is, if they work less than 2 hours in an 80 hour two week pay period. Then they do not accrue hours in that pay period. But may accrue the pay in a subsequent pay period if they work more hours.
Maximum amount of sick pay used in a 12-month period is five days (40 hours).

This12-month period is July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018 unless the company takes formal steps to determine another period. The company has the ability to choose the 12-month period for the sick pay accrual, such as use January 1 through December 31. This will change the carry over requirements for new hires.

see page 3 of this summary for changing the period from July 1 to another annual date)

Companies can also “front load” sick days and provide five days (40 hours) upfront at the beginning of the year – on July 1, 2017 for the 2017 year and every July 1st moving forward, or your current benefit year.
These “front loaded” days cannot be “earned” from the prior year or period, but must be provided before they were due.
This is different than the “front-load described on pages 3 and later for changing the annual benefit year.

No Pay Requirement:Unused earned sick pay hours are not required to be paid at the end of employment.

Increments:

Companies may elect to establish a policy where the minimum increments for an employee using accrued paid time off cannot exceed four hours per day. Companies can limit the amount of sick time used per incident to this amount, and not allow ½ hour late call-ins or 2 hour leave-early sick pay, as examples.

New hires:

New hires must start accruing paid sick time right away (from date after hire).
The company can establish a policy that restricts when the employee canUSE the paid sick pay for a maximum of 180 days following their hire date (6 months).
Short term or seasonal employees who work for less than 180 days would never have a chance to use the pay, and this is acceptable.
Rehired employees cannot be required to repeat the 180 day waiting period if they had a break in service that is less than 120 days.
New hires would have their “benefit year” be from their hire date to anniversary date each year, or it can be incorporated into a standardized 12 month benefit year where all employees carry-over unused sick pay at the same date.

Carryover: The carryover rules are based on whether the company is subject to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA):

Less than 50 employees (Non-FMLA eligible)
The carry-over amount is ½ of the earned sick pay balance at the end of the benefit year.
Employees can carry over 20 hours of paid sick leave to the next 12-month “benefit year” period, but are still restricted to using only 40 hours in the 12-month period.
50 employees or more (FMLA eligible)
The carry-over amount is ½ of the earned sick pay balance at the end of the benefit year.
Employees can carry over 40 hours of paid sick leave to the next 12-month period and are still restricted to using only 40 hours in the 12-month period. Unlessthe employee’s absence is for a FMLA qualifying reason. If so, they can use an additional 20 hours in the 12-month benefit year period (up to 60 hours), but these 20 hours can only be used for FMLA qualified absences.

Salaried exempt employees: The accrual should be based on their normal workweek. (Ex: If your full-time employees work a minimum of a40 hour week,then the exempt employees should accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. The exempt employees would not earn more even if they worked over 40 hours in any week).

Tipped employees: They must be paid at least minimum wage when they are paid out for the sick pay.

Employees can use the sick pay for these absences:

Employee’s physical or mental illness or injury
Medical care, treatment diagnosis or preventative care or if recuperating from the same
Victim of domestic abuse
Victim of sexual violence of stalking
Business is closed for that day/hours due to a public health emergency
Employee’s family member is physically or mentally ill or injured
Family member is victim of domestic abuse, or sexual violence of stalking
Employee’s child’s school or place of care is closed due to a public health emergency

Ordinance Does Not in Some Cities!!

Some cities in Cook County have “opted-out” of the Ordinance – the Ordinance will not apply. These cities are listed below effective 5/2017:

This is not legal advice. Please contact Precision Human Resources or an employment attorney to discuss this further.

Arlington Heights

Barrington

Bedford Park

Burr Ridge

Elk Grove

Elmwood Park

Evergreen Park

Hickory Hill

Mount Prospect

Oak Forest

Palatine

Palos Park

River Forest

Rosemont

Schaumburg

Streamwood

Tinley Park

Wheeling

This is not legal advice. Please contact Precision Human Resources or an employment attorney to discuss this further.

12-month Period

Content taken from the April, 2017 Public Notice

Definitions:

Accrual Period:The dates of each annual Accrual Period is based on either the anniversary of an employee’s Start of Employment (i.e. an “Individualized Accrual Period”) or on a different 12-month period that is defined by the Covered Employer to be consistent with its Benefit Year or otherwise standardize its employees’ Accrual Periods (i.e. a “Standardized Accrual Period”).

Benefit Year: The uniform 12-month period that an employer regularly uses for granting and tracking the benefits (e.g., paid time off, health insurance) it provides to its employees regardless of each individual employee’s Start of Employment. A Benefit Year may be a calendar year, a fiscal year or any other established 12-month period.

A Covered Employer may use one of two types of Accrual Periods when awarding Earned Sick Leave to a Covered Employee:

(1) an Individualized Accrual Period that varies from Covered Employee to Covered Employee based on each individual Covered Employee’s Date of Initial Accrual or

(2) a Standardized Accrual Period that is the same for every Covered Employer without regard to each individual Covered Employee’s Date of Initial Accrual.

Individualized Accrual Periods

Unless a Covered Employer chooses to use a Standardized Accrual Period, each Covered Employee will accrue Earned Sick Leave during a 12-month Accrual Period that commences for that Covered Employee on his or her Date of Initial Accrual, stops upon reaching the Accrual Cap, and then repeats annually.

Standardized Accrual Period

For ease of administration, a Covered Employer may wish to have all Covered Employees on the same Accrual Period despite each Covered Employee having a different Date of Initial Accrual. The Commission will consider a Covered Employer who establishes a Standardized 12-month Accrual Period for all Covered Employees to be in compliance with the Ordinance under either one of the two following scenarios:

(1) Covered Employer Uses Front-Load Method and Standardized Accrual Period: New Hire Given Earned Sick Leave for Portion of Accrual Period that Pre-Dates Start of Employment and Does Usual Carry Over

If the Covered Employer frontloads Earned Sick Leave, the Covered Employer may put a new Covered Employee on a Standardized Accrual Period (e.g., the Covered Employer’s standard 12-month Benefit Year) by awarding the new Covered Employee, on his or her Date of Initial Accrual, the amount of Earned Sick Leave that the new Covered Employee would have received by that point in the Covered Employer’s Standardized Accrual Period if that Covered Employee’s Initial Date of Accrual was on the first day of that Standardized Accrual Period. At the end of the Standardized Accrual Period, the new Covered Employee would carry over like any other Covered Employee and then in all subsequent Standardized Accrual Periods, he or she would accrue Earned Sick Leave like any other Covered Employee.

For example, a Covered Employee who works 20 hours per week starts employment on May 31, 2018, but the Covered Employer’s Benefit Year is January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. The Covered Employer could put the new Covered Employee on its Standardized Accrual Period so long as on the Covered Employee’s Date of Initial Accrual (i.e. June 1, 2018), the Covered Employer awarded the Covered Employee with the amount of Earned Sick Leave he or she would have received if he or she had been hired on December 31, 2017, began accruing Earned Sick Leave on January 1, 2018, and worked 20 hours in each of the 22 weeks between January 1, 2018 and June 1, 2018 (i.e. 11 hours of Earned Sick Leave). At the end of the Covered Employer’s Benefit Year (i.e. December 31, 2018), the new Covered Employee would carry over half of any unused Earned Sick Leave, and then would start the next 12-month Accrual Period (i.e. January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019) together with, and governed by all the same rules as, all of the Covered Employer’s other Covered Employees.

(2) Covered Employer Uses Accrual Method and Standardized Accrual Period: New Hire Allowed to All Unused Earned Sick Leave Accrued in Initial Partial Accrual Period

If the Covered Employer does not frontload Earned Sick Leave, then the Covered Employer may put a new Covered Employee on its Standardized Accrual Period (e.g., the Covered Employer’s standard 12-month Benefit Year) by providing that, at the end of the Covered Employer’s Standardized Accrual Period which occurs during the new Covered Employee’s first year of employment, the new Covered Employee is allowed to carry over all of his or her accrued Earned Sick Leave into the next Standardized Accrual Period.

Under this option, at the end of the first Standardized Accrual Period in which the new Covered Employee has worked for less than all 12 months, he or she must be allowed to carryover all of his or her unused accrued Earned Sick Leave, rather than potentially losing some portion of accrued but unused Earned Sick Leave as described in Section 400.600. At the end of the next Standardized Accrual Period, in which the Covered Employee typically will have worked the full 12 months, and in all subsequent Accrual Periods, that Covered Employee will carry over like any other Covered Employee, according to the usual carryover rules described in Section 400.600.

To illustrate, the Covered Employer’s Benefit Year for all Covered Employees is January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018, and it wants a new Covered Employee who started working on May 31, 2018, to be on that Standardized Accrual Period, rather than to have an Individualized Accrual Period that runs from June 1, 2018, to May 30, 2018. Assuming that on December 31, 2018 (i.e. the end of the Covered Employer’s Benefit year), the new Covered Employee has 24 hours of unused accrued Earned Sick Leave (from working 40 hours per week over a 6-month/24-week period), the Covered Employer could comply with the Ordinance by allowing the Covered Employee to carry over all 24 hours into the next Benefit Year. The Covered Employee would start that Benefit Year (on January 1, 2019) with all 24 hours of unused accrued Earned Sick Leave, would accrue and use like every other Covered Employee during the Benefit Year and on December 31, 2019 (and at the end of every other subsequent Benefit Year) would be subject to the same carryover rules as every other Covered Employee

Please contact your Payroll Specialist or Precision Human Resources Consultants for more information.

This is not legal advice. Please contact Precision Human Resources or an employment attorney to discuss this further.