Human Resource Blog

Illinois Short Term Disability

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One of our employees is unable to work for up to 12 weeks due to a heart attack. In

Illinois, is she entitled to disability pay under any state or federal law?

Illinois workers have no state or federal law guaranteeing them income during a short-term disability, but you may have some other options.

Often an employer’s group insurance may actually have short-term disability payments included. Check with your benefits coordinator. Sometimes those plans require that the employee have used up their vacation time and sick leave. In some group insurance plans, short-term disability is an option that you can add on to your existing plan, usually with an additional fee.

Your employee would be able to get both medical benefits and disability pay through worker’s compensation, if she were injured at work. But, it doesn’t sound like that’s the case.

Other options may be available. If the employee can’t work because of a doctor-certified “serious medical condition,” she may be eligible for leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA. The leave is unpaid, but job-protected, and can be used for up to 12 weeks.

The employee must qualify by showing that she has a doctor-certified “serious medical condition,” but it sounds like that will be no problem in this case.  

Five states and Puerto Rico have passed laws requiring that workers get short-term disability payments. Of the five, California guarantees as much as 52 weeks of payments. Workers get 55% of their usual paycheck, up to $728 weekly.

The remaining states that offer short term disability payments are New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Hawaii. Rhode Island Workers get payments of 60% or more for as many as 30 weeks, and the payments increase with each dependent. Rhode Island provides a disability insurance paid for by payroll deductions.

The rest offer payments for up to a half-year, or 26 weeks. In New Jersey, workers get 66% of their pay. In New York it is 50%. And in Hawaii, employees receive 58% of their salary. Most states mandate a one-week waiting period, unpaid, before payments begin.