Gov. Pritzker Signs Law Making Illinois Just 3rd State to Mandate Paid Time Off for “Any Reason,” Adding Burden to Small Business Owners

By Illinois Review

On Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritker (D) signed a bill into law mandating paid time off for “any reason,” making the state just the third in the US to guarantee paid leave for one full week each year, placing a tremendous strain on small business owners still struggling to recover from the pandemic and a troubled economy under the Biden administration.

Just months into his second term in office, and with rumors swirling about Pritzker’s presidential ambitions, it’s clear that he’s building a national profile and sticking to a liberal extremist political agenda.

On January 10th, Pritzker signed an assault weapons ban into law, making Illinois one of only a handful of states with a similar law.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed at the state level, and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) has filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the law is “unconstitutional.”

And on January 13th, Pritzker signed a new bill into law that expands abortion protections in Illinois, including gender transitioning care.

The new law protects Illinois providers from legal action for performing abortion procedures to out-of-state patients, and protects patients from seeking gender transitioning care such as hormone blockers, hormone replacement therapy and hormone gender confirmation surgery.

In a statement after signing the bill into law on Monday, Pritker said,

“Working families face so many challenges, and it’s been my mission to alleviate those burdens in every way I can. Today, we will become the third state in the nation to require paid time off, and the first among the largest states.”

And it comes as no surprise that leaders from Illinois AFL-CIO, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, Federation of Labor and SEIU Healthcare all supported this legislation and applauded Pritzker for signing it.

But the new law will place a tremendous burden on small business owners still struggling to recover from Pritzker’s shutdowns during the pandemic, and a struggling economy resulting in high inflation.