Yes, You Get Paid for Jury Duty.
Just not very much — unless your employer steps in.
Here's exactly what to expect from courts and from your boss.

Federal jurors in a long civil case can sit for six weeks and take home $60 a day from the court — roughly $8.25 an hour, before the IRS takes its share. That is the reality behind the vague reassurance that "jurors are compensated." The court pay is real, but it was never designed to replace a paycheck. The more important question for most people is what their employer is legally required to pay during the same period.

This article covers the actual dollar figures paid by federal courts and by every state that publishes a rate, the patchwork of state laws that govern employer obligations, how mileage and parking reimbursements work, and what happens to your pay and benefits if the trial runs long. The rules are genuinely complicated — a nurse in California has different protections than a freelancer in Mississippi — so the specifics matter.

What Federal Courts Pay Jurors

The federal baseline is set by 28 U.S.C. § 1871. For the first ten days of service, the daily fee is $50. From day eleven onward it rises to $60 per day. Grand jurors, who often serve one or two days per month for 18 months, receive the same rates. These amounts have not changed since 1990 for the initial tier, which means inflation has roughly halved their real value over that period.

On top of the daily fee, federal courts pay a mileage reimbursement tied to the IRS standard business rate. For most of the 2020s that rate has sat between 58 and 67 cents per mile, updated annually. You also get reimbursement for tolls and reasonable parking. If you live more than 90 miles from the courthouse and are required to be there, the court arranges and pays for accommodations — this applies most often in rural districts where the nearest federal courthouse is a long drive from parts of the jury pool area.

Federal courts do not pay for meals on day one of voir dire; once you are empaneled, you receive a meal allowance on days when deliberations are ongoing. The exact amount varies by district but is usually in the $35–$50 per diem range, set by the General Services Administration travel meal rates for that city.

State Jury Duty Pay Rates: The Actual Numbers

State rates vary enough that listing a range is almost meaningless without specifics. Here is what the major states actually pay as of their most recently published schedules:

• California: $15 per day starting on day two (day one is unpaid by the court). Los Angeles County supplements this to $25. Mileage reimbursement is paid at the IRS rate.
• Texas: $6 on the first day, $40 per day from day two onward for district courts. County courts pay $40 per day from day one in most counties. No statewide mileage standard — counties set their own.
• New York: $40 per day for the first three days, rising to $72 per day starting day four. One of the higher state rates in the country.
• Florida: $15 per day for the first three days, $30 per day from day four.
• Illinois: $25 per day for circuit courts, with counties able to pay more. Cook County pays $17.20 per day for the first day and $25 thereafter — a quirk of its fee structure.
• Pennsylvania: $9 per day for the first three days, $25 per day from day four. Some counties add a supplement.
• Virginia: $30 per day for the first five days, $50 per day starting day six. Mileage is paid at the state rate, which is typically below the IRS rate.
• Georgia: $25 per day for superior courts.
• Mississippi: $40 per day, which is relatively generous for the Southeast.
• Wyoming: $50 per day — one of the highest flat state rates.

Several states — South Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska among them — pay $15 or less per day for at least the first few days of service. Massachusetts grand jurors receive $50 per day after the first three days but only $15 for the first three. The bottom of the scale is Tennessee at $10 per day, unchanged for years.

The practical effect of low court pay is that it pushes the financial burden onto employer pay policies and personal savings. A juror in Tennessee earning the state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour loses roughly $48 per day compared to working a full shift, and the court makes up $10 of that gap. The remaining $38 comes from nowhere unless their employer acts.

What Your Employer Is — and Is Not — Required to Pay

No federal law requires private employers to pay employees during jury service. The federal Jury Systems Improvement Act only prohibits employers from firing, threatening, or intimidating an employee who receives a summons. What your employer must actually pay during that time is a question of state law, and the states have landed in wildly different places.

States that require full or substantial pay: Massachusetts requires employers to pay full wages for the first three days of jury service, after which the court's daily fee kicks in. Alabama and Colorado require full pay for the first three days as well. Connecticut requires employers to pay the first five days at the employee's regular wage. These are meaningful protections — they cover most short trials.

States with partial or limited requirements: New York law requires employers to pay $40 per day for the first three days of service — not the employee's full wage, but a defined minimum. Tennessee requires employers to pay the first ten days at the employee's regular rate only if the employer has more than five employees. Louisiana requires full pay only for the first day.

States with no employer pay requirement: Florida, Texas, Nevada, California, and several others only prohibit retaliation. Employers in these states are free to offer pay as a benefit — and many large employers do, as a matter of HR policy — but they are not legally obligated to do so.

For salaried employees, the Fair Labor Standards Act adds a wrinkle: under the FLSA, a salaried exempt employee who works any part of a week generally cannot have their salary docked for jury absence without risking the loss of their exempt status. As a practical matter, most employers keep paying exempt employees their full salary during jury duty rather than risk reclassifying them as non-exempt. This is not a legal requirement to pay for jury duty — it is a side effect of salary basis rules.

Hourly workers have no such protection and are the group most financially exposed to long jury service in states without mandatory employer pay.

Mileage, Parking, and Other Court Reimbursements

Every court system that pays mileage uses one of two approaches: the IRS standard mileage rate, or a state-specific rate that is sometimes lower. Federal courts use the IRS rate, which in 2024 is 67 cents per mile. If you drive 20 miles each way to the federal courthouse, that is $26.80 per round trip added to your $50 daily fee.

State court mileage rates are less consistent. Virginia's state employee travel rate, which courts use for juror reimbursement, has historically run 4–8 cents below the IRS rate. Ohio pays 28 cents per mile for jurors — a rate that has not tracked the IRS figure for years and significantly undervalues actual driving costs. California pays the IRS rate. New York City does not pay mileage because the court assumes you took the subway, but it does reimburse a MetroCard fare.

Parking reimbursement is handled differently still. Federal courts typically validate parking in a designated garage; if you use a different lot, you submit receipts. State courts are more variable — some validate, some reimburse up to a daily cap (commonly $10–$20), and some in cities with ample street parking simply do not address it.

A few courts, mainly federal, also reimburse for extraordinary travel costs. If the court session runs until 9 PM and missing the last bus home is a real concern, some district courts have a policy of arranging or reimbursing a rideshare. Ask the jury coordinator on day one; this is not advertised but is sometimes available.

One reimbursement that surprises people: if the judge sequestrates the jury — meaning jurors are housed in a hotel during deliberations, most common in high-profile criminal cases — all lodging, meals, and incidental costs are paid by the court. You do not pay a cent. This is rare, but worth knowing if you end up on a case that looks likely to go that direction.

Long Trials, Benefits, and What Happens After Week One

Short jury service — two or three days — is a financial inconvenience. A trial that runs four weeks is a different problem. The law's protections for long-term jurors are thinner than most people assume.

Your job is legally protected for the duration of service in every state; firing someone for serving on a multi-week trial is illegal nationwide under federal law. But pay protection rarely extends that far. Even in Massachusetts, which has one of the stronger employer pay requirements, the mandate covers only the first three days. A Boston juror on a six-week federal antitrust case who earns $80,000 per year is looking at roughly $1,600 in court pay total and zero guaranteed additional employer compensation after day three, unless their company's policy is more generous.

Benefits — health insurance, 401(k) contributions, accrual of paid time off — are generally required to continue during jury service under state employment protection laws. The reasoning is that these are conditions of continued employment, and the law treats jurors as continuously employed. The specifics depend on your state and employment contract, but cutting benefits during jury service is the kind of thing that draws a retaliation lawsuit even in states without explicit pay requirements.

Federal employees are in a notably better position. Under 5 U.S.C. § 6322, federal civilian employees receive their full pay for the entire duration of jury service, with no time cap. They also receive court pay, which they are technically supposed to remit to the Treasury if it exceeds their travel expenses — a rule that is inconsistently enforced but technically on the books.

State government employees have widely varying rules. In California, state employees receive their full pay for ten days; after that, they use leave or go to court pay only. In New York, state employees receive full pay indefinitely during jury service, one of the most generous policies in the country. Local government employees typically follow their jurisdiction's policy rather than the state employee policy.

If you are self-employed or a freelancer, the honest answer is that you bear the entire cost of long jury service yourself. The court will pay you $50–$60 per day. Nobody else will. Courts do excuse jurors from long cases when genuine financial hardship is demonstrated, and self-employed individuals often qualify for a hardship excuse if they can document that absence would cause significant harm to their business — but this is a discretionary decision by the judge, not a guaranteed right.

How to Document Your Jury Duty Pay and What to Disclose

When you return to work, most employers require proof of service and will want to know the amount you received from the court. This matters because some employers pay the difference between your normal salary and court pay — so if you earn $250 per day and the court paid you $50, the employer pays $200. To calculate this, they need the actual court pay figure, which appears on your juror payment record.

The court will give you a payment summary when you are discharged. Keep this document. It shows the number of days served, the daily rate paid, total fees, and mileage reimbursement. Your employer's HR department will almost certainly ask for it.

For tax purposes, jury duty pay is ordinary income, taxable at your marginal rate. No Social Security or Medicare tax is withheld by the court (it is not wages), but you owe income tax on it. If you serve more than a few days and receive over $600 from a federal court, expect a 1099-G. State courts vary; some issue forms, some do not, but the income is taxable regardless.

One practical wrinkle: if your employer pays your full salary during jury duty and requires you to sign your court check over to them — a common policy — that arrangement is legal, and you do not owe income tax on the court payment you never actually received. You owe tax on your regular salary as usual. Get this policy in writing from HR before your service begins so there is no ambiguity at tax time.

Mileage reimbursement from the court is not taxable income if it is at or below the IRS standard rate. If a state court reimburses at, say, 28 cents per mile but your actual cost is higher, you cannot deduct the difference — the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the miscellaneous itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee and juror expenses through 2025.

How to Request a Postponement or Hardship Excuse

Getting paid less than your normal income is the most common reason people try to postpone or be excused from jury service. Courts take hardship claims seriously, but the bar for an outright excuse is higher than most people expect. A postponement — serving at a later date — is almost always easier to get than an excuse, and most courts grant one postponement online without requiring explanation.

Genuine financial hardship that courts typically excuse: a self-employed sole proprietor whose business would have to close during a four-week trial, a single parent with no childcare options, or an hourly worker whose employer has confirmed in writing that they will not pay during absence and who cannot cover basic living expenses on court pay alone. The key is documentation. A letter from your employer stating no pay will be provided, combined with a declaration of your financial situation, is far more persuasive than a verbal claim at the courthouse.

What courts do not consider a hardship: disliking the inconvenience, having work deadlines, or receiving lower pay than normal. These affect nearly every juror and courts know it. Claiming hardship on these grounds wastes time and rarely succeeds.

For genuinely long trials — anything projected to run more than three weeks — judges often conduct a hardship inquiry during voir dire and excuse jurors who can demonstrate real financial injury. If you are in this situation, be specific and honest. Judges have heard every version of these claims and respond best to concrete numbers: "I earn $X per day, the court pays $Y, I have a mortgage payment of $Z due on the 15th, and my employer's written policy confirms no supplemental pay."

One option almost nobody uses: some courts allow jurors to defer service to a specific future date of their choosing, rather than a random future date. If your financial situation will be better in three months — a project will be finished, a busy season will have ended — ask the jury clerk whether a date-specific deferral is available in your jurisdiction. Not all courts offer it, but it is worth asking.