• Federal law does not require employers to pay employees while serving on a jury.
• State laws may require employers to pay employees while serving on a jury.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require paying non-exempt employees for time not worked, including jury duty. This type of benefit is generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee’s representative). While federal law does not include such a mandate, some state laws require employers to pay employees who are asked to serve jury duty.

Under the FLSA, however, employees who are classified as exempt cannot be subject to a salary deduction for absences caused by jury duty, if the employee worked for part of that week. The federal regulation regarding the salary basis of payment (541.602) offers the following:

• (b)(3) While an employer cannot make deductions from pay for absences of an exempt employee occasioned by jury duty, attendance as a witness or temporary military leave, the employer can offset any amounts received by an employee as jury fees, witness fees or military pay for a particular week against the salary due for that particular week without loss of the exemption.

If, for example, an exempt employee works on Monday and Tuesday, then gets called to jury duty for the rest of the week, employers must still pay a full weekly salary. If, however, the employee receives compensation for serving (such as $20 per day), the employer may reduce the weekly salary by the amount of those fees.

Exempt employees need not be paid if they do not work for a full week, regardless of the reason. To continue the above example, if the exempt employee was absent for all of the following week on jury duty, federal regulations do not require paying the employee during the full-week absence. State laws, however, may require wage or salary continuation. A state may, for example, require continued wages during the first five days of absence. Since the employee was already paid for the first three days of absence, the employer would have to continue the salary for the first two days of the subsequent week.

Employees selected for jury duty are often paid a small amount per day for the service. Depending on the trial, the employees can be called for one day or can be expected to serve for several weeks. Since jury duty pay is so low, many employers continue wages to employees serving on juries, or pay the difference between what the employees would have earned while working and what they earned on jury duty.

Employers may limit the time paid to employees while on duty jury. Employers may also have the right to ask that workers be excused from jury duty obligations if the employees’ absence would substantially interfere with the efficient operation of the company. The likely response varies with the jurisdiction.

Most states do not require private employers to pay employees who are absent for jury duty. States, do, however, generally require employers to excuse the time off, and may have other restrictions (such as prohibiting mandatory use of vacation time). States that do not require private employers to continue wages during jury duty include:

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Many states do require public (government) employees to be paid wages during jury duty.