Jury duty leave
Jury duty leave is time off you grant when an employee is summoned for jury service.
Federal law protects federal jurors from discharge or intimidation but requires no pay. Nearly every state prohibits penalizing an employee for serving, and remedies can include reinstatement, back pay, and fines. A few states go further and require you to pay part of the wages lost during the first days of service. Elsewhere the leave is unpaid unless your policy or a union contract provides otherwise. Court-paid juror fees are typically small and are not wages from you.
Do you have to pay for jury duty?
Payment depends on the state and on how the employee is classified. Record jury duty as its own leave type, not paid time offPaid time off (PTO). Paid time off (PTO) is a single bank of paid hours an employee draws from for vacation, illness, or personal reasons.Click to open the term. The record then shows protected service, not discretionary vacation, kept the employee away. Where the leave is paid, jury duty pay gets its own earning codeEarning code. An earning code is the configured category that tells payroll how one kind of pay behaves for tax, rate calculation, and reporting.Click to open the term and is taxable wages subject to withholding. During an unpaid stretch, plan for benefit deductions that no longer have wages behind them.
| CASE | RULE |
|---|---|
| New York | Employers with more than ten employees pay the first $72 of daily wages for three days |
| Connecticut | Employers pay full-time employees their regular wage for the first five days |
| Alabama, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Tennessee | Among the other states requiring some paid jury leave, usually the first few days |
| Exempt salaried employee | Generally no salary docking for a partial-week absence; court jury fees may be offset against that week’s salary |
- 28 U.S.C. §1875, Protection of jurors’ employment
- New York Judiciary Law §519, Right of juror to be absent from employment
General information, not legal or tax advice. Apply current federal and state rules with qualified guidance.