New laws: Illinois expands job-protected leave for parents with newborns
in NICU
[December 27, 2025]
By Brenden Moore
Illinois workers with a newborn in a neonatal intensive care unit will
soon have additional access to job-protected, unpaid leave.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 2978, dubbed the Family Neonatal
Intensive Care Leave Act, earlier this year and it takes effect Jan. 1.
It requires employers of between 16 and 50 workers to provide up to 10
days of unpaid leave to employees who have a child in the NICU. Larger
employers must provide up to 20 days.
The law applies to both part- and full-time workers. It covers a broader
swath of workers than the federal Family and Medical Leave Act — the law
requiring public agencies, K-12 schools and private companies with at
least 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year.
Workers eligible for FMLA must exhaust that leave first before utilizing
NICU leave.
Employers covered under the law must maintain their employee’s health
insurance benefits and guarantee their reinstatement upon the conclusion
of leave. Employers can’t force workers to exhaust their paid leave
instead of unpaid NICU leave, though employees can take it if they
choose.
Violations may result in fines of up to $5,000.
Here are some other new labor laws that take effect in 2026.
AI in employment decisions
An amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act, House Bill 3773,
prohibits use of AI in employment decisions such as recruitment, hiring
and promotion if that use results in discrimination due to race,
religion, sex and age.
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, will require employers to
disclose use of AI in employment decisions. The measure, however, could
potentially run afoul of a recent order that limits how states can
regulate AI.
Documenting domestic violence
House Bill 1278 prevents employers from disciplining employees for using
work devices to document domestic violence, sexual violence, gender
violence or other forms of violence against them or a family member.
Employers also have to grant employees access to such documentation and
communications stored on the devices.
The law was inspired by a New York woman who used her work device to
document domestic abuse committed by her husband. She was disciplined by
her employer and later murdered by her husband.
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The Illinois State Capitol is pictured in Springfield. (Capitol News
Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
Workplace transparency
House Bill 3638 amends the Illinois Workplace Transparency Act to
broaden the definition of “unlawful employment practice” to include any
act prohibited by the Illinois Human Rights Act, the federal Civil
Rights Act and any other state or federal law covering employment
issues.
Employment contracts can also no longer include terms that limit an
employee’s ability to engage in “concerted activity” like collective
bargaining. And it prohibits contract stipulations that shorten the
statute of limitations for employee claims, apply the law of another
state to claims or require claims be resolved outside Illinois.
Paid leave for organ donors
House Bill 1616 extends paid leave requirements for organ donors to
part-time employees.
Under the law, workers can use up to 10 days leave per year to serve as
an organ donor. Part-time workers’ pay for these days will be their
average daily pay rate over the previous two months.
Military honors
Under Senate Bill 220, employers with more than 50 workers must offer up
to eight hours of paid leave per month — capped at 40 hours per calendar
year — for employees to participate in a military funeral honors detail.
It is in addition to regular paid time off.
Unemployment benefits
House Bill 3200 allows for someone who voluntarily leaves their job for
mental health reasons to be eligible for unemployment benefits. It is a
three-year pilot program that sunsets Dec. 24, 2028.
Maggie Dougherty contributed to this report.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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