New Illinois Law Expands the Growing List of States Requiring Employers to Pay Employees for Jury Duty Service

Introduction

As states continue to strengthen workplace protections tied to civic obligations, Illinois has enacted changes to its jury duty leave law. It joins a growing trend of jurisdictions that require employers to compensate employees for at least a portion, and in some cases, all, of their time spent performing jury service. In addition to Illinois, the list includes Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Tennessee, and more states may follow suit in the future. The remainder of this alert provides an overview of the Illinois requirements.

The New Illinois Law re: Jury Duty Service Pay – Now Paid Leave

Effective January 1, 2027, Illinois employers with more than 25 employees “shall be required to compensate an employee at their regular rate of pay for the time serving on jury duty.”[1]  Under existing Illinois jury-service law, employers must provide employees with time off for jury service, but the Illinois jury statutes have not generally required employers to compensate employees for such service. Other legal requirements, including the federal salary-basis rules applicable to certain exempt employees, may independently restrict deductions from an employee’s pay. The new law changes this, effective January 1, 2027. For employees of covered employers, the new law converts jury duty leave from job-protected unpaid leave into paid leave. The bill as originally introduced would have required all employers to compensate employees for jury service. It was subsequently amended to exempt employers with 25 or fewer employees.

As a result of the new law, covered employees will not lose their regular pay merely because they are required to serve on a jury. Notably, the new law contains no express cap on either the amount an employer must pay or the length of time an employer must continue compensating an employee serving on a jury.

Unresolved Questions

The new law requires covered employers to pay employees their “regular rate of pay” while serving on a jury. The new law, however, does not define that term. Consequently, it is unclear whether Illinois courts will interpret “regular rate of pay” to mean an employee’s ordinary hourly rate or salary, or whether the phrase will be construed more broadly, in a manner similar to the “regular rate” concept under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the “FLSA”), which can include certain nondiscretionary bonuses, commissions, and other forms of compensation.

Although the phrase may invite comparison to the FLSA’s regular-rate concept, the statute does not expressly incorporate that concept. The phrase, therefore, may instead be construed to refer to an employee’s ordinary straight-time hourly rate or salary. Further guidance will be particularly important for employees with variable or incentive-based compensation.

The new law also leaves several other questions unresolved:

• It does not define “time serving on jury duty,” leaving unresolved both which activities that phrase covers—waiting time at the courthouse, travel time, and reporting time when the person is not selected, as opposed to only time actually sitting as a juror—and whether compensation is required for all such time or only for the portion that overlaps with the employee’s scheduled working hours.
• The new law is silent as to whether an employer may credit compensation that an employee receives from a court for jury service against the compensation the employer must provide. Although federal salary-basis regulations permit an employer to offset jury fees against the salary otherwise due to an exempt employee for the particular week, the new law does not expressly authorize an offset against its new statutory payment obligation. Until further guidance is available, employers may want to exercise caution before taking such an offset.
• The new law does not shed light on how the 25-employee requirement is calculated. For example, if an employer has 20 employees outside Illinois and 10 employees in Illinois, does the employer have “more than 25 employees” for purposes of the amendment, or are only its Illinois employees counted? Until further guidance is available, an employer with more than 25 employees in the aggregate may want to consider treating itself as covered, even if 25 or fewer of its employees work in Illinois.
• It is unclear how the law will apply to salaried employees when jury service occupies only part of a workday or workweek.
• The new law does not indicate how pay should be calculated for employees whose compensation includes shift differentials, piece rates, or fluctuating incentive compensation.
• The new law also does not indicate how its requirement interacts with an employer’s existing paid jury-duty policy, PTO policy, or collective bargaining agreement.
• The new law also does not specify whether an employer may require reasonable proof of attendance or release from jury service in addition to the summons.

The observations above identify practical issues that the statutory language does not expressly resolve and should not be understood as settled interpretations of the new law. Covered employers should monitor administrative guidance and judicial developments and consult legal counsel before addressing these questions.

Other Requirements of Jury Duty Service Remain Unchanged

Notably, the new law does not change other requirements regarding jury duty service. They remain in effect. (See bullet points below.) Because the new pay requirement is added to the same Section whose remedies reach “any employer who violates the provisions of this Section,” a failure to pay a covered employee is likely enforceable through the existing remedies—listed below—and not just the time-off rules. (705 ILCS 305/4.1)

• Employees summoned for jury duty must be provided with time off to serve irrespective of their assigned shift.
• Employees are protected against employer retaliation in connection with jury duty. No employer may discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce an employee because of jury duty service.
• An employer violating the law may be charged with contempt of court, may be held liable for any lost wages or benefits, and may be enjoined and ordered to reinstate a discharged employee, provided that an employee gives reasonable notice of required jury service.
• An employee reinstated after an unlawful discharge must be restored without loss of seniority and may remain entitled to insurance and other benefits under the employer’s established rules for employees on furlough or leave.
• A court may award a prevailing employee reasonable attorney’s fees of retained counsel.
• The statutory rights and remedies are cumulative of other rights and remedies available to an employee.
• Employees must give “reasonable notice” to their employers of their jury duty obligation. Reasonable notice means that an employee must deliver a copy of the jury duty summons to the employer within ten days of its issuance.

Conclusion

Fortunately, employers subject to the new law will have until January 1, 2027, to prepare for and comply with it. In the meantime, covered employers would be wise to update their employee handbooks, adjust payroll practices as necessary, document jury-service dates, hours, and amounts paid, and train their managers along with their human resources and payroll personnel. Illinois’ recent changes to its jury duty pay requirements underscore a broader legislative trend as more states mandate that employers compensate employees for specified days, or even the entirety, of their jury service. Now is an ideal time for employers to review their leave policies and payroll practices to ensure compliance with the evolving requirements applicable to both on-site and remote workforces.

[1] On July 31, 2026, Governor Pritzker signed House Bill 4844 into law as Public Act 104-683 (shown in some official indices as Public Act 104-0683—the same Act). Public Act 104-683 amends Section 4.1 of the Illinois Jury Act, 705 ILCS 305/4.1, and Section 10.1 of the Illinois Jury Commission Act, 705 ILCS 310/10.1 (collectively, the “new law”). The two statutes govern different county jury-administration systems but contain substantially parallel employee protections concerning jury service. The amendments take effect January 1, 2027, and may not yet appear in the compiled statutes.

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