New Illinois law mandates paid time off for jury duty

Beginning January 1, jury duty will no longer mean unpaid time off for most Illinois employees. Under a new Illinois law, employers with more than 25 employees must pay employees their regular rate of pay for time spent on jury duty.

Background

Illinois already requires employers to provide time off for jury service. Employers are also prohibited from discharging, threatening, intimidating, or coercing employees because of jury service.

Before now, however, Illinois law expressly provided that employers were not required to pay employees for time spent on jury duty. This new law changes that.

As originally introduced, the bill would have required all employers to pay employees their regular rate for jury service. Lawmakers later amended the bill to exempt employers with 25 or fewer employees. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the amended bill into law on July 31.

The compensation requirement

In the view of Illinois lawmakers, jury duty should not result in financial hardship for employees.

Illinois is not the first state to require employers to pay employees for jury service. However, other states have limited the obligation.

Connecticut, for example, requires employers to pay regular wages to full-time employees for the first five days of jury service. After that, the state pays jurors $50 a day. Connecticut also allows employers to seek relief from the payment requirement based on “extreme financial hardship.”

In Colorado, employers generally must pay employees their regular wages, up to $50 a day, for the first three days of service. After that, the state pays jurors $50 a day. Employers may seek relief from the state if the obligation would cause financial hardship.

In contrast to these other states, Illinois does not place a time or dollar limit on the employer’s payment obligation. Covering a three-day trial may not be difficult for most employers. But a three-week trial could be a different story.

Be prepared!

Employers covered by the Illinois law have until January 1 to prepare. Employers should review their jury duty policies and payroll practices to ensure that jury service is treated as paid leave (or will be, effective January 1). The new law requires employees to provide “reasonable notice” by giving the employer a copy of the summons within 10 days after it is issued. Thus, employers should incorporate this notice obligation into their policies.

Employers should also remind supervisors and managers that employees are legally entitled to time off for jury service and cannot be discharged, threatened, intimidated, or coerced because of that service.

The statute leaves some practical questions unanswered:

• How the 25-employee threshold is calculated.
• Whether employers may deduct the amounts employees receive from the court system from the amount the employer is required to pay.
• How the requirement applies to employees with irregular schedules or variable rates of pay.

Employers should watch for additional guidance as they update their policies and payroll practices.

For guidance or assistance with this new law, please contact any attorney in Constangy’s Chicago Office.