To Pay or Not to Pay

The state of Illinois recently enacted a law that would require employers to pay their employees for time spent serving on a jury. The law, which takes effect on January 1, 2027, requires employers with 25 or more employees to pay their employees their regular rate of pay for the time that the employee spends on jury duty. This is the only change to the existing jury duty law, which contains other protections for employees who are selected to serve on juries, including the requirement that employers provide the employees with the time off necessary to serve and do not otherwise discriminate against or penalize employees for taking time off to serve on a jury. Employees are required to provide employers with reasonable notice of their summons for jury duty, including providing a copy of the actual summons within 10 days of the issuance of the summons. The law also contains the mechanism by which an employee can challenge an employer’s violation of the law.

Why is this new law, involving one state and one small subset of leave, significant? It is illustrative of how employment laws can change with little fanfare or notice to employers who are responsible for complying with the most current version of the law. It is also indicative of the variations in how certain situations are treated based on the location of the employee and the employer. While jury duty now must be paid for nonexempt, hourly employees in Illinois, other states and localities have their own method of paying for jury service and have limitations on whether and how an employer must pay an employee who is called to serve as a juror, which begs the question as to whether you are up to date on the jury duty laws in your state or locality.

Whenever an employer learns of a change in the law, it is a reminder to the employer of its obligation to maintain consistent policies and procedures that are compliant with the new requirements and to take steps to implement whatever changes are necessary to ensure compliance. When an employer is faced with a new obligation based on a change in the labor and employment laws, the employer should take the following steps:

Familiarize themselves with the law, its requirements, and its applicability to employers

Many employment laws vary in the application based on employer size, industry, or other factors – employers must conduct a thorough review of its headcount to determine whether they are exempt from the change based on size and also review the other factors that determine applicability to see if those factors exempt them from coverage

Employers must review their policies and procedures to ensure compliance – in the example of the jury duty change, employers must update their leave and payroll policies and practices to ensure that they will treat jury duty leave accordingly under both policies and practices

Employers should train managers and human resources personnel on any new laws and their requirements to ensure that the law’s requirements are properly implemented

Employers should establish any necessary new procedures for the collection of paperwork or other information regarding the new law that must be maintained to show compliance with the new requirements

Finally, employers must evaluate the overall impact of the change in the law – what other related policies or procedures will be impacted by this new law and how should those policies be modified to ensure that the law is correctly implemented and enforced in the workplace

As all human resources professionals know, the area of labor and employment law is constantly changing. Those changes require professionals to stay current with the requirements of the law and to constantly review their policies, procedures and practices to ensure that their organizations are compliant with the most current version – whether it be the minimum wage, state paid family or medical leave programs, or paid jury duty. myHRcounsel is here to support you as you navigate the everchanging area of labor and employment law – our goal is to ensure that our employers are proactive, thereby minimizing the risk of employee complaints and lawsuits.