Illinois will require pay for jury duty on January 1, 2027, but the law never defines “regular rate of pay”

An Illinois employee serving on a jury will be entitled to pay from an employer with more than 25 employees starting January 1, 2027.

Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 4844 on July 31, 2026. The measure became Public Act 104-0683 during the 104th General Assembly. It passed both houses with votes of 69-34 and 35-20.

Illinois employers above 25 employees will pay for jury duty

The act amends two parallel statutes. One change appears in Section 4.1 of the Jury Act, 705 ILCS 305/4.1. The other appears in Section 10.1 of the Jury Commission Act, 705 ILCS 310/10.1. Both sections are titled “jury duty, notice to employer, right to time off.”

Before the act, subsection (g) said that no employer was obligated to compensate an employee for time taken off for jury duty. The new language strikes that sentence. The Jury Act now requires an employer to compensate an employee at the employee’s regular rate of pay for time serving on jury duty. The Jury Commission Act uses matching language requiring pay at the employee’s regular rate of pay for time the employee served on jury duty.

The requirement does not apply to an employer with 25 or fewer employees. It covers employers with more than 25 employees.

When reviewing the enrolled Public Act text beside the Illinois General Assembly bill status page, we found that the change is confined to subsection (g) in the two parallel statutes. The enacted text also contains no definition of “regular rate of pay” and no cap on paid days.

Employees already had time-off and retaliation protection

The new pay requirement sits alongside provisions that remain unchanged.

Employees must receive time off for jury service, including employees who work night shifts. An employer may not discharge, threaten, intimidate or coerce an employee because of jury service.

The statutes define “reasonable notice” as delivering a copy of the summons to the employer within 10 days after the date the summons was issued to the employee. That date matters in any dispute over the notice period.

A violator may face contempt, liability for lost wages or benefits, and an injunction with reinstatement. A juror who is reinstated is treated as being on leave without loss of seniority. The remedies are in addition to any other rights the employee has.

An employee may bring an action. If the employee brings the case through retained counsel and prevails, the court may award a reasonable attorney’s fee. The statute uses “may,” making the fee award discretionary. The section also already identifies lost wages as a possible form of liability.

The statute leaves pay calculations unresolved

Public Act 104-0683 does not say what “regular rate of pay” means.

Littler identified an ambiguity over whether the phrase follows the meaning of “regular rate” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or instead refers to the employee’s ordinary hourly wage. The enacted text also leaves open questions involving tipped employees and whether an employer owes pay for every hour of jury service or only for hours that overlap a scheduled shift.

The statute contains no cap on the number of paid jury-duty days. It also does not say whether juror fees paid by the court reduce the amount an employer owes.

The text does not state how an employer’s employee count must be calculated. That leaves a separate question for employers and counsel applying the 25-employee threshold.

The statute also does not prescribe separate formulas for hourly, salaried or commissioned workers. Because the new duty uses “regular rate of pay” without defining it, payroll policies will need to address those categories, as well as tipped workers, while the statutory questions remain open.

Employers need new payroll and handbook decisions before January 1

Employment lawyers and in-house counsel advising Illinois employers above the threshold will need to review handbooks and payroll policies before the effective date. They will also need to determine how the company counts employees for purposes of the 25-employee line, because the statute does not provide that method.

The existing notice rule should remain visible in those materials. An employee must provide the employer with a copy of the summons within 10 days of the summons’s issuance date. The summons itself supplies the date that starts the clock.

Plaintiff-side lawyers will have two existing statutory features to examine in disputes. The section lists lost wages or benefits among the potential consequences for a violation, and it permits a court to award a prevailing employee a reasonable attorney’s fee when the employee sued through retained counsel. The fee language is discretionary.

The new law changes the compensation rule, but it does not remove the existing right to time off or the protections against retaliation. Employers and employees will need to apply those provisions together when jury service affects a work schedule.

Intake should capture the summons date and pay facts

A worker who receives a jury summons is likely to call an employment firm outside business hours. The facts that matter under this statute include the employer’s headcount against the 25-employee line, the date the summons was issued for the 10-day notice clock, and how the worker is paid.

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