Jury duty pay - a step-by-step guide
Jury duty is never fun, not for the person who has been summoned as a juror, and especially not for their employer who must manage with one less employee. As an employer, it can be extremely frustrating to have your staff pulled away for jury duty, but there isn’t much you can do about it other than disperse work to others to make up for that absence of the juror.
The US has a few provisions set in place to protect workers who do get called for jury duty to make sure their employment is not in jeopardy. In this blog, we will focus on the jury duty pay rules and regulations that must be met by employers when their employees are called up.
JURY DUTY LAW
The Jury Systems Improvement Act was established in 1978 and prohibits employers from firing, threatening to fire, intimidating, or coercing employees due to their jury duty service or attendance in connection with jury service. This act also states that employers need to treat those employees as if they are on a leave of absence in order to retain benefits and seniority. Each state has varying laws in accordance with this act so be sure to check what your state requires of you.
PAYMENT FROM EMPLOYERS FOR JURY DUTY SERVICE
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibits employers from docking the pay of an exempt employee if they miss less than a week for jury duty. This is only if the employee does some work throughout that week. If the exempt employee does not work for one or more full weeks while serving as a juror, you are not legally required to pay them. As an employer, you may want to set up a policy specific to employees serving jury duty, setting out what they should expect in terms of jury duty pay.
TAX DEDUCTIONS FOR JURY DUTY PAY AND EXPENSES
According to the American Payroll Association, many employers pay employees while on jury duty but then offset the pay received by jury duty against the employee’s wages. As an employer, you will need to decide how you wish to deal with federal taxes from wages paid out while your employee was serving jury duty. This situation will vary based on if you pay your employee their normal wages, if you pay a different wage, or if you make your employee turn over their jury duty pay. Keep in mind the payment received from jury duty is not eligible for federal tax withholding, social security, Medicare, and federal unemployment tax.
JURY DUTY PAY FOR NON-EXEMPT WORKERS
If you have non-exempt workers, there is no requirement from the FLSA to pay those individuals should they be away on jury duty. If you live in Michigan, as an employer you are not allowed to require a worker to work while they are on jury duty if the combined hours of work and jury duty will exceed the number of hours normally worked. However, if your employee voluntarily agrees to work, or is under a collective bargaining agreement, this is allowable. In Michigan, your employees may be more likely to work while also maintaining an active presence as a juror due to the lack of pay required for them as they serve.
HELP WITH JURY DUTY PAY FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES
Our expert payroll team is on hand to help if you have any questions or need further guidance around jury duty pay. Arrange a free, no obligation payroll consultation with our team today.
Source: American Payroll Association: APA’s Guide to State Payroll Laws - 2016 Edition