There’s a widely held belief (and, even, a fact) by civil servants that employers exist only to absorb the costs of inconvenience. If it’s a fact, then the state of Illinois has just outdone itself. Starting in 2027, Illinois employers with 26 or more employees must pay employees at their regularly hourly rate for jury duty leave. The change, enacted through House Bill 4844 and signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker on July 31, 2026, will ensure that there are no caps or limitations on the new paid leave. This particular bill amends the Illinois Jury Act and Jury Commission Act.
While Illinois employers have been required to provide employees with protected time off of work to fulfil jury duty obligations, the new bill changes who bears the cost of that leave.
If one your most crucial and top-earning employee is picked to sit on jury duty for three-months, you must bankroll their entire wage with no exceptions, caps or limitations of any sort.
The state of Illinois has chosen to place this financial responsibility for additional pay above the jury duty stipend on the shoulders of employers with 26 or more employees. Thus, what was once an operational challenge of covering an employee’s absence will now also become a significant payroll expense.
House Bill 4844: Illinois requirements for paid jury duty leave
Until now, if a member of your staff was summoned for jury duty, your legal obligations were meagre. You wished them well and scrambled for ways to ensure operations remained efficient in their absence. It was a little disruptive, but it didn’t ravage your payroll.
From January 1, 2027, that balance might as well throw itself into an incinerator.
Under the newly minted bill, Illinois employers are required to continue paying them their full and regular hourly rate. If one your most crucial and top-earning employee is picked to sit on jury duty for three-months, you must bankroll their entire wage with no exceptions, caps or limitations of any sort.
A strange financial roulette of jury duty in Illinois
Jury summons is often sent out at a random by the courts. This means an employer has no control over who amongst their staff gets called by the system, or how long they are serving their jury duty.
If a senior executive is summoned to a courtroom, sworn in, and seated for a months-long trial, you won’t just have to face the logistical problem of finding a temp, but also write that absent employee a cushy check.
During this period, you will receive zero hours of work from the said employee. So, what can you actually do about the House Bill 4844?
Employers have to prepare, right now
Employers in Illinois need to review their employee handbook to ensure it mentions the new jury duty policy for paid leave. This particular piece of policy will need to be rewritten from scratch to explicitly state that jury service is now fully paid at their regular wage. If you wait until 2027 to review your policy and make changes, you’ll be far behind on not just compliance but also the basic math needed to ensure your payroll systems are on track.
Don’t miss our review of Jury Duty Season 2; as our writer Anuradha wrote, “it perfectly captures the absurdities that hang over the workplace and the people who take it in their stride.”
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