On August 15, 2025, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law the Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (NICLA). NICLA will require employers with 16 or more employees to provide certain amounts of unpaid leave (depending on the size of the employer) to all employees while any child of the employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit. Employers with 16 to 49 employees must provide up to 10 days of unpaid leave, and employers with 50 or more employees must provide up to 20 days. The leave may be taken intermittently or consecutively, and employers can also require the leave to be taken in minimum increments of 2 hours.
Importantly, NICLA leave is in addition to leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for qualifying employees and is tacked on at the end of FMLA leave. In other words, FMLA is used first, and then the additional 20 days must be allowed if the child is still in a NICU. Unlike under FMLA, however, employers may not require employees to substitute accrued paid leave prior to taking unpaid leave under NICLA. Just like under FMLA, employees must be reinstated to their former position or a substantially equivalent position with no loss of benefits held or accrued prior to taking leave, including the maintenance of health insurance. Employers may require “reasonable verification” of the child’s length of stay in a NICU but cannot request any confidential information protected by HIPAA or any other law. “Reasonable verification” is undefined, and presumably, it will be addressed in regulations the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) will eventually draft. It would seem that something as simple as a note from a medical provider stating the number of days for the expected NICU stay, and/or the final number of days of the stay, would be sufficient.
NICLA also prohibits employers from taking adverse actions against an employee for exercising rights under the law. Employees who believe their rights have been violated under the Act have 60 days from the last event constituting the alleged violation to file a claim with the IDOL or a lawsuit in court. “Last event” is not defined, but presumably, this could include actions such as not returning the employee to their prior or similar position, retaliating at some later date for having taken the leave, or forcing the employee to use paid leave. The IDOL can impose civil penalties of up to $5000 per violation and also assess other damages such as unpaid wages, “damages” (which is undefined), and penalties, with 80% of the amount collected going to the employee, and the rest being deposited into the Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Fund, which will be used for enforcement of the Act.
The Bottom Line
The language of the Act does not provide a date on which it goes into effect. Therefore, under the Illinois Effective Date of Laws Act, since this bill was not passed before June 1, it would go into effect on June 1, 2026. Employers with 16 or more employees will want to amend their handbooks and policies to include the provisions of the NICLA, including informing employees of their rights under the law and how to request the leave. Employers who have FMLA-eligible employees will also want to consider including details about NICLA rights in their standard notice letters when the reason for requested FMLA relates to an employee having a child in a NICU.
