Whether you have to use vacation time for jury duty depends on your state. More than a dozen states explicitly prohibit employers from making you burn vacation, sick leave, or PTO to cover jury service. A smaller group goes further and requires employers to keep paying you during at least part of your service. In the remaining states, your employer’s written policy controls, and some companies do require you to use PTO or provide no pay at all. Federal law protects your job but does not protect your paycheck or your leave balance.
States That Prohibit Requiring Vacation or PTO
In these states, the answer is settled regardless of what your handbook says. Employers cannot require you to use vacation, sick leave, or PTO to cover a jury duty absence. The list includes Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia. Some carry teeth — Oklahoma, for instance, gives employees a civil claim against a violating employer.
If you live in one of these states and your employer’s policy tells you to submit a PTO request for jury duty, the policy loses. Raise it with HR before your service starts and reference the state statute by name. Fixing it after the deduction is harder than preventing it.
States That Require Paid Jury Leave
About eight states plus the District of Columbia require private employers to pay you during at least some of your jury service, which sidesteps the vacation question entirely for those days. The specifics vary a lot. Connecticut requires regular wages for the first five days. Massachusetts requires regular wages for the first three. Others require a single day of pay, or require the employer to pay the gap between your normal wages and whatever the court gives you. Several of these laws exempt very small employers or workers who haven’t been on the payroll long enough to qualify.
Check your state’s statute for the exact number of days, the size-of-employer threshold, and any waiting period. The difference between three paid days and five can matter if you land on a longer trial.
States Where the Handbook Controls
The remaining states protect your job from retaliation but say nothing about whether your employer can require PTO or must pay you. In those states, your employee handbook is the final word. Some employers voluntarily pay full salary for five to ten days as a benefit. Others require you to use accrued PTO. Some offer nothing beyond unpaid leave and the court’s small daily fee.
Read the jury duty section of your handbook closely. Look for three things: whether the company pays your regular wages during service and for how many days; whether you have to turn over the court’s daily stipend if the company is paying you; and whether you’re expected to report to work if the court dismisses you before a certain hour, often around midday. That last rule catches people. Jury service is protected, but ignoring a same-day return-to-work requirement can still get you written up.
An employer’s policy can always be more generous than state law, never less. Where state law is silent, more generous is measured against the handbook itself.
Federal Employees
If you work for the federal government, you cannot be required to use vacation time for jury duty. Under 5 U.S.C. § 6322, federal employees get court leave with full pay, no reduction in leave balances, and no loss of service credit or performance ratings for the entire period of service.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 6322 – Leave for Jury or Witness Service If you’re already on annual leave when the summons arrives, your agency has to switch you to court leave. You can’t even voluntarily substitute vacation to avoid losing use-or-lose leave.
Salaried Exempt Workers Get a Separate Federal Protection
If you’re a salaried employee classified as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, federal wage-and-hour rules add a layer that matters here. Your employer cannot dock your salary for any week in which you perform some work but also miss time for jury duty.2U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Overtime Security Advisor – Compensation Requirements – Jury Duty, Military Leave and Serving as a Witness Work Monday and Tuesday, sit in the jury box Wednesday through Friday, and you’re still owed your full weekly salary.
Your employer can offset the court’s jury fees against your pay for that week. If the court pays you $50 a day and you serve three days, your employer can reduce that week’s check by $150.3GovInfo. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis What it can’t do is treat the missed days as unpaid, because that would violate the salary basis test and put your exempt status at risk.
This protection applies to employees earning at least $684 per week ($35,568 annually) on a salaried basis. The Department of Labor tried to raise that threshold in 2024, but a federal court in Texas vacated the new rule, so the 2019 level still governs.4U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions Note the boundary: this rule stops your employer from docking your salary, but it doesn’t by itself stop your employer from requiring you to use PTO to cover the absence. That’s a state-law question.
What Federal Law Does and Doesn’t Cover
Federal law under 28 U.S.C. § 1875 protects permanent employees called for federal jury service from being fired, threatened, or coerced because of their service. Violations can bring reinstatement, back pay, attorney’s fees, and a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per employee per violation.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment
Two limits are worth naming, because they answer the question people ask next. The statute covers “permanent employees,” so temps, seasonal workers, and independent contractors may fall outside it — though state law may still protect them. And the statute says nothing about pay or leave balances. It keeps your job. It does not require your employer to pay you, and it does not stop your employer from requiring PTO where state law permits.
If Your Employer Requires PTO Anyway
Start with your state. If you’re in one of the states listed above that bans forced use of vacation or PTO for jury duty, that’s your first citation. Bring it to HR in writing and ask them to correct the policy or the deduction. Reference the statute rather than the general idea.
If your state is silent, check the handbook itself. A company that voluntarily promises paid jury leave has to honor that promise, and a company whose policy conflicts with state law has to follow the law. Where neither source helps and the financial hit is real, look at asking the court for a postponement or a hardship excusal through the clerk’s office listed on your summons — a separate process, but sometimes the practical answer when your employer won’t pay and won’t let you keep your vacation.
Because these laws change and the details vary state to state, verify the current rule on your state’s department of labor website or in the state statute itself before you rely on any list. The gap between a state that bans forced PTO and one that’s silent is the difference between keeping your vacation days and losing them.