Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois protects from discrimination employees who provide personal care to family members. In so doing, Illinois joins several other states that provide a cause of action to employees who believe they face discrimination on the basis of “family responsibilities.”

The Law

House Bill 2161 amends Illinois’ existing Human Rights Act, the state’s version of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Prior to House Bill 2161, the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) prohibited discrimination and harassment on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, marital status, order of protection status, disability, military status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, unfavorable discharge from military service, citizenship status, or work authorization status. Now, effective in 2025, “family responsibilities” has been added to the list of protected categories.

The law defines family responsibilities as “an employee's actual or perceived provision of personal care to a family member.” To define “family member” and “personal care,” the law references the existing definitions in the Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act. Under that law, covered family members are an employee’s child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent. And “personal care” includes, but is not limited to, taking a family member to doctor appointments, tending to a family member’s medical, hygiene, nutritional, or safety needs, and providing emotional support to a family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care.

In addition to the discrimination and harassment protection, employees with family responsibilities, as defined under the law, also have protection from retaliation if they have made a report of discrimination on the basis of family responsibilities.

To guard against potential overbreadth of the law, Illinois added a provision that states employers are not obligated to “make accommodations or modifications to reasonable workplace rules for an employee based on family responsibilities” such as those related to leave, scheduling, productivity, attendance, absenteeism, timeliness, performance, and benefits. This is true, however, so long as these workplace rules are “applied in accordance with the [IHRA].” It is difficult to discern exactly how this limitation will interact with claims for familial responsibility discrimination, but this provision does make clear that the new law does not independently obligate employers to provide accommodations for familial responsibilities akin to, for example, the interactive process for disability discrimination claims, so long as the existing workplace rules are reasonable and enforced appropriately.

Steps Employers Should Take

Illinois employers should take note of this new protection for employees with family responsibilities and consider whether their actions or policies may be construed to discriminate on the basis of familial responsibilities – whether those responsibilities are actual or perceived. The law should also remind employers nationwide that the federal American with Disabilities Act provides protection to employees on the basis of their “association” with a disabled individual, such as a close family member or friend. Moreover, other states have laws with caregiver protections like Illinois – including Alaska, Delaware, Minnesota, and New York.

Employers should stay abreast of continued developments at the state and local level regarding familial and caregiver discrimination.