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 leav

See Full Page