State legislators expanded Illinois’ Paid Sick Leave Act Tuesday. If signed into law, the list of covered family members would include stepchildren and domestic partners.
Stepchildren are often the forgotten and overlooked in fairy tales. They were also forgotten by Illinois lawmakers last year … when the Paid Sick Leave Act was passed and signed into law. It took effect this month, and protects the right of workers to paid time off in order to care for a sick family member.
Representative Peter Breen, a Republican from Lombard, says domestic partners were only excluded from PARTS of the law, but stepchildren were left out altogether.
?
“Excluding stepchildren was just cruel, frankly. So that would be cruel.”
The additions passed both the Illinois House and Senate with bipartisan support and now go to the governor.