Making “Cents” of Jury Service: Illinois General Assembly Requires Pay for Certain Employees’ Civic Duty

The Illinois General Assembly has been laser-focused on expanding workplace protections and benefits for employees in recent years — from amending the Illinois Human Rights Act to bar discrimination against employees acting as family caregivers to strengthening employees’ rights to raise concerns about workplace conditions, wages, or safety concerns under amendments to the Illinois Workplace Transparency Act. Next up: (some) paid jury duty.

On July 31, 2026, Governor JB Pritzker’s signed HB 4844 into law. While the bill only makes a minor change to the Section 4.1 of the Illinois Jury Act and Section 10.1 of the Illinois Jury Commission Act (the Statutes), the change will likely have major impacts on larger employers when their Illinois-based employees are called for jury service.

Effective January 1, 2027, HB 4844 requires employers with over 25 employees (Covered Employers) to compensate employees at their regular rate of pay for time spent performing jury duty. Before the amendments, Illinois employers — regardless of size — were generally required to provide unpaid “time off” for jury duty and were prohibited from retaliating against employees from taking time off to do so.

With only a few months left in 2026, Covered Employers should start taking steps now to ensure they have the proper procedures in place to begin providing and tracking paid leave to employees performing jury service. Those steps should include, for example, the following:

• Review employee handbooks and company policies concerning paid and unpaid leave;
• Modify payroll practices to ensure eligible employees receive their regular rate of pay for time spent performing jury service;
• Train supervisors, managers, and human resources personnel on Illinois’ amended jury service law, and
• Update any procedures for taking time off for jury duty, receipts of jury summons, and documenting leave taken for jury service.

Violating Illinois’ jury service law can result in legal consequences for non-compliant employers, including being held in contempt of court and potential exposure to civil liability if an aggrieved employee files suit (and being required to pay the employee’s reasonable attorneys’ fees if the employee prevails). Thus, making any necessary changes now will help reduce the potential for liability once HB 4844 takes effect.