Affluent Village Outside Chicago Drops Minimum Wage Increase, Adds Paid Sick Leave

The trend for states and localities to offer paid sick leave continues with Glenview, Illinois soon to join the ranks of those offering the popular form of leave.

Beginning July 1 2019, the village, which is an affluent village located a few miles outside Chicago, will implement the paid sick leave guidelines of surrounding Cook County. That means employers in Glenview must provide all employees working more than five hours per week paid sick leave, according to a statement available from the Village of Glenview’s website. Workers will earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked with a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick leave.

Under Cook County sick leave requirements, an employee may carry over up to 50% of their unused accrued paid sick leave from one 12-month accrual period to the next 12-month accrual period, up to a maximum of 20 hours.

Federal employees and state government and units of local government are excluded from the county sick leave ordinance.

The village ordinance will be repealed if state or federal legislation addressing the matter is adopted.

The Village Board voted to opt into the Cook County Sick Leave Ordinance on Feb. 7.

July 1 minimum wage increase cancelled

An increase in Glenview’s minimum wage that was scheduled for July 1 has been cancelled because of state action on the matter. Village workers will still see an increase in the entry-level wage but that will happen on Jan. 1, 2020.

When the Village Board approved adopting Cook County’s paid sick leave requirements, it also approved adopting Cook County’s minimum wage ordinance, which meant that the entry-level wage for workers in Glenview would have increased to $12 an hour on July 1. However, the increase was approved with a provision that it would be repealed if state or federal legislation addressing the issue was adopted.

On Feb. 14, state legislators did just that, voting to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. The bill was signed into law by Democratic Governor Pritzker on Feb. 19. The Illinois entry-level wage, which is now $8.25 an hour, will rise to $9.25 on January 1, increase again to $10 per hour on July 1, 2020, and then increase $1 per hour each year on January 1 until it hits $15 per hour in 2025.

Because of the state’s actions, the state schedule will apply to Glenview.

Under the Cook County ordinance that was made moot by state action, the minimum wage would have increased to $12 on July 1, increase to $13 on July 1, 2020 and, thereafter, increase based on the annual Consumer Price Index.

“Although the state and Cook County wage increase schedules differed, the end result is that both will achieve a minimum wage of $15 per hour by 2025,” the Glenview statement notes.

The Glenview statement also observes that the state law creates a tax credit to help businesses with 50 or fewer employees offset some of the cost of wage increases.

Opposition and popular support

The Glenview Chamber of Commerce had opposed the increase in the entry-level wage, arguing that it will hurt local businesses and that the Village Board should wait to see what action the state takes, the Chicago Tribune reported.

But both measures have popular support. Glenview’s decision to increase the minimum wage and to add a paid sick leave policy followed on the heels of a non-binding advisory referendum on the ballot in November in which Glenview voters showed strong support of the Cook County sick leave and minimum wage ordinances, according to law firm Jackson Lewis writing in The National Law Review. About 76% voted “yes” to the minimum wage referendum question while about 82% voted for paid sick leave, according to the Chicago Tribune.

State and local sick leave policies

Currently, 11 states, Washington D.C. and about 20 localities require paid sick leave. Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state as well as Washington, D.C. offer paid sick leave for workers to recover from an illness, seek medical care or care for a sick relative.