Illinois HB 1616, signed into law on August 15, 2025, has made several important changes to the Employee Blood and Organ Donation Leave Act, but has also left a trail of confusion relating to whether the leave must be paid. In 2023, Illinois amended the Employee Blood Donation Leave Act to include organ donation. Previously, leave for organ donation was only provided for state employees, and this 2023 change allowed organ donation leave for all full-time employees in Illinois, including those who work for private employers. The law changed to the "Employee Blood and Organ Donation Leave Act" (the Act) at that time and can be found at 820 ILCS 149 et seq.
The Act applies to employers in the state with 51 or more employees. As implied in its title, the Act has two components, blood donation and organ donation. The blood donation component of the Act applies to full-time employees and requires employers to provide employees with up to one hour of leave for blood donations every 56 days. "Full-time" is not specifically defined in terms of number of hours per week, but the Act does require a participating employee to have been employed for 6 or more months. Presumably, the way each employer defines "full-time" will govern whether the employee may receive the one hour of pay for a blood donation. There are no changes to this part of the Act.
Regarding the organ donation component, the Act will now apply to part-time employees in addition to full-time employees. "Part-time" is also not defined, which would presumably mean that the requirement for providing leave for organ donation will apply to any employee who works any number of hours for an employer in the state with 51 or more employees.
Where the Act, both the 2023 ("original") version and the amended version, is confusing is in determining whether the employer must pay the employees for the 10 days of leave or must merely allow an employee to take the time off (and/or use any accrued paid leave). It seems that many employers have concluded that the leave must be paid, but when the language of the Act is broken down, this is anything but clear. Section 3 of the Act states that the Act is "intended to provide time off with pay" to allow employees in the state to donate blood or an organ. But while the intent may be stated, the actual language of the Act does not actually accomplish that intent.
Specifically, Section 10 of the Act, both in the original (2023) and amended versions, is entitled "Paid leave for blood donation; administration," with no reference to organ donation. Subsection (a) then states "On request, a participating employee subject to this Act may be entitled to leave with pay to donate blood or an organ." Subsection (a) does not state that leave must be paid, only that an employee "may" be entitled to "leave with pay" for blood or organ donation. Subsection (b) in both versions then references the one hour of leave for blood donation up to every 56 days, still with no reference to the hour being paid. Subsection (b-5) in the original version states "An employee may use up to 10 days of leave in any 12-month period to serve as an organ donor." Once again, the word "paid" does not appear, which would arguably imply that the leave need not be paid.
Amended Subsection (b-5) adds part-time employees to those who can take leave to donate an organ. It also goes further and states: "For a part-time employee using leave under this subsection, the employer shall calculate the daily average pay the part-time employee received during his or her previous 2 months of employment and compensate the part-time employee in the amount of the daily average pay for the leave days used." Nothing in this subsection references providing pay to full-time employees, and the original language remains the same, stating that an employee "may use up to 10 days of leave" without reference to the leave being paid or unpaid.
Thus, as it stands, the only references to pay in the substantive portion of the Act (i.e. not the title of a subsection and not in the introductory language about intent) is in the amended subsection (b-5) relating to how to calculate pay for part-time employees and in subsection (a) stating that an employee "may" be entitled to leave with pay. Therefore, employers are left to wonder whether they must provide paid leave to employees who donate an organ (on top of whatever other paid leave they provide), or whether they must merely allow the 10 days of leave and allow employees to use accrued paid leave and pay them accordingly. Arguably, one could interpret the language to simply mean that employers must allow the leave to donate an organ and is then providing guidance on how to calculate the amount of paid leave if the employee has available leave. Indeed, this change to now include part-time employees comes on the heels of the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, which requires employers to provide paid leave to all employees, including part-time employees. Thus, it would make sense for this addition of part-time employees to simply mean that all employees are entitled to take time off to donate an organ and have it paid if there is available paid leave for them to use.
While the Legislature did state that its intent was to provide time off with pay for blood and organ donation, due to sloppy drafting, employers are left wondering whether they actually must pay employees who donate blood and organs on top of whatever other paid leave they provide. Delving further, despite instructions by the Legislature for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to issue regulations, IDPH has not done so since 2006 (when the law was new and only applied to blood donations). The Administrative Code states that "An employer has the authority to establish a policy allowing participating employees paid leave to donate or attempt to donate blood in accordance with Section 985.400." Ill. Admin. Code tit. 77 § 985.300. Section 985.400 states: "If the employer allows paid leave for blood donation," then the employee has to submit a request for leave to donate blood along with further details about how to submit the request. Section 985.500 states that if an employer has a policy allowing paid leave for blood donation, then the employee will not be required to use accumulated paid leave. Thus, the only existing Administrative Code sections related to the Act state that employers may have policies about paid leave for (blood) donations, but not that employers must provide paid leave absent a written policy. Therefore, one could interpret this law as encouraging but not requiring employers to provide paid leave for blood and organ donations.
The Bottom Line
Hopefully, the IDPH will issue new regulations for the amended version of the law. The General Assembly website for Public Act 104-0193 states that the changes to the Act go into effect on January 1, 2026 (despite no such language in the amendment itself) and thus, it is likely that employers will not have a definitive answer to whether leave for blood or organ donation must be paid prior to the effective date. A best practice will be to consult with counsel when establishing any policies on blood or organ donation or if presented with a situation in which an employee chooses to donate blood or an organ.
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