Illinois Governor Pritzker Signs the Nation’s Strongest Caregiver Anti-Discrimination Bill (HB 2161) into Law

Chicago, IL – [Friday, August 23, 2024] – On August 9, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed House Bill 2161, groundbreaking legislation securing anti-discrimination protections for workers with caregiving responsibilities. For Illinois’ 1.5 million family caregivers, this bill will ensure employment decisions are made based on their job performance, instead of bias.

The new law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2025, prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on their real or perceived caregiving responsibilities at home. Workers with family responsibilities—whether caring for small children, aging parents, or family members with disabilities—often face bias at work that denies them equal opportunities. Caregiver discrimination impacts workers across all demographic groups, but it is most severely felt by women, people of color, and low-wage workers.

HB 2161 was championed by State Representative Will Guzzardi and Senator Natalie Toro. Guzzardi initially learned that family caregivers were excluded from anti-discrimination protections from Chicago attorney Gail Schnitzer Eisenberg, who chairs the legislative committee of the National Employment Lawyers Association of Illinois and urged Guzzardi to introduce a bill closing the gap in the law.

Illinois is the sixth state to prohibit family responsibilities discrimination, but the state’s new protections are now the nation’s strongest, protecting a wide range of family relationships and caregiving activities. The legislation is based on a model developed by The Center for WorkLife Law, an advocacy and research organization affiliated with the University of California, College of the Law in San Francisco. The final bill language was reached through negotiations with business, labor, and governmental interests.
“With the signing of this law, Illinois leads the nation in protecting family caregivers from bias at work,” said Rep. Guzzardi. “Workers should never face the discriminatory assumption that they won’t be able to do a job just because they have a child, spouse, or parent to care for at home. This law makes sure that employers and workers alike know the rules of the road: discrimination against caregivers won’t be tolerated in our state.”

“The new legislation will fill a loophole in existing legal protections that permitted discrimination based on unfounded assumptions about a caregiver’s ability to perform their jobs,” said Eisenberg. “Society should be thanking those who take on unpaid family responsibilities – not penalizing them.”

“We are thrilled to see another state protect its hardworking family caregivers from unfair treatment on the job,” said Liz Morris, Co-Director of the Center for WorkLife Law. “We applaud Illinois Representative Guzzardi and Senator Toro for their vision to make these protections a reality. We will keep working until caregivers in every single state have this basic right.”

For more information about HB 2161 and its impact, or further press inquiries/comments, please contact info@worklifelaw.org.