Do you have to pay employees for jury duty? Under federal law, no. The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require employers to pay wages for time an employee spends at the courthouse instead of at work. But roughly a dozen states impose their own pay mandates, exempt salaried employees have protections that hourly workers don’t, and your own handbook may commit you to more than the law requires. The real answer depends on the state you operate in, how the employee is classified, and what you’ve already promised in writing.
Federal Law Does Not Require Jury Duty Pay
The FLSA is the main federal wage law, and it does not require employers to pay workers for time they haven’t actually worked. Jury duty falls squarely into that category.1U.S. Department of Labor. Jury Duty
When an employee is called to federal jury service, the court pays them a $50 daily attendance fee directly. That rate has been in place since 2018 and remains unchanged for 2026. If a trial runs long, the judge can raise the amount to $60 per day once a juror has served more than ten days on a single case. Grand jurors get the same bump after forty-five days.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1871 – Fees None of that money comes out of your payroll, and none of it obligates you to top it up. Whether the employee’s paycheck keeps flowing during service is a question federal wage law leaves to the states, to you, and to the employee’s classification.
States That Require Employers to Pay
Roughly a dozen states require employers to pay at least some wages during jury service. The specifics vary considerably.
Some states require the employee’s full regular pay for a limited window, often the first three to five days. Others take a different approach and require you to pay the gap between the employee’s normal wages and the court’s daily stipend. State court stipends themselves range widely, from nothing in a couple of states to around $50 per day in the most generous ones, with an average near $22.
These mandates sometimes kick in only above a certain business size, exempting small employers with fewer than a set number of workers. A few states go further and prohibit you from forcing an employee to burn vacation days or PTO to cover the absence. Because the rules differ so much by location, check your specific state’s jury duty statute before setting or enforcing a policy. Your state labor department or court website will usually have a plain-language summary.
How Pay Rules Differ for Salaried and Hourly Employees
Even where no state law applies, the FLSA treats exempt and non-exempt employees very differently when jury duty pulls them out of work. Getting this wrong on the salaried side is one of the more common ways employers accidentally void an employee’s exempt status.
Hourly (Non-Exempt) Employees
The math here is straightforward. Hourly employees get paid for hours they actually work, and jury duty hours are not work hours. You have no federal obligation to pay them for the time they spend at the courthouse.1U.S. Department of Labor. Jury Duty Unless a state law or your own policy says otherwise, those missed hours simply go unpaid.
Jury duty time also does not count toward weekly overtime. Federal regulations treat jury duty payments as separate from compensation for hours worked, which means those hours cannot push an employee past the 40-hour overtime threshold. If you do voluntarily pay for jury duty days, that payment can be excluded from the regular rate when calculating overtime.3eCFR. 29 CFR Part 778 – Overtime Compensation
Salaried (Exempt) Employees
Exempt employees have stronger protections, and this is where employers slip up. Under the salary basis test, if an exempt employee performs any work at all during a given workweek, you must pay their full salary for that week. Serve on a jury Monday through Wednesday but work Thursday and Friday? Full weekly salary, no deductions for the missed days.4eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
There is one offset available. If the employee receives jury fees from the court, you can subtract that amount from their salary for the same week without violating the salary basis rule.4eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis So if the court pays an employee $250 for five days of service, you can reduce that week’s paycheck by $250. The only scenario in which you can withhold the entire salary is a full workweek in which the employee performs zero work.
What Your Own Policy Commits You To
Even where no state law compels payment, many employers voluntarily pay for jury duty as a benefit. These provisions typically live in the employee handbook, offer letter, or a collective bargaining agreement. Once a written policy exists, you are bound by it for all eligible workers, so it’s worth knowing exactly what yours says before a summons ever arrives.
Most policies fall into one of two camps. The more generous version creates a dedicated paid-leave category for civic duties, covering regular wages for a set number of days. The other approach requires the employee to use existing PTO or vacation balance if they want to be paid during service. That second version is less common in states that explicitly prohibit forcing PTO usage for jury duty, but it is perfectly legal where no such state rule exists.
If your handbook is silent, you have more flexibility, but silence also invites disputes. A short, clear policy that states whether jury duty is paid, for how many days, and how PTO interacts with it will save you argument later.
You Cannot Retaliate, Even When You Don’t Pay
Pay is one issue. Job protection is a separate one, and it applies regardless of whether you pay for the time off.
Federal law makes it illegal for any employer to fire, threaten, intimidate, or pressure a permanent employee because of federal jury service. A violation carries a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation per employee, plus liability for lost wages, reinstatement of the fired worker, and the employee’s attorney’s fees. A court can also order community service as part of the penalty.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment
Every state has a parallel anti-retaliation law covering service in state and local courts. The details and penalties vary, but the core protection is the same: you cannot punish an employee for answering a jury summons. Some states go further for night-shift workers and prohibit requiring them to work the shift immediately before or during their jury service.
When an Employee Brings You a Summons
Ask for a copy of the summons and note the reporting date. Most state laws use “reasonable notice” as the standard without specifying an exact number of days, so accepting notice the day the employee receives the summons is the norm.
Confirm in writing what the employee will and won’t be paid, whether PTO applies, and what you expect from them on days the court dismisses jurors early. Some employers reasonably require employees to return to the workplace if released before a set time; that expectation is enforceable if it’s part of a clear internal policy and doesn’t conflict with state law.
When service ends, ask for the proof-of-service certificate from the court clerk. It confirms the specific days served and is the cleanest record for processing any jury duty pay, adjusting a salaried employee’s paycheck for stipend offsets, or documenting the absence in the employee’s file.