Arizona jury duty laws require every employer in the state, regardless of size, to give employees unpaid time off to respond to a jury summons, prohibit forcing them to use vacation or sick leave for the absence, and forbid firing or penalizing them for serving. The rules sit in A.R.S. 21-236, and violating them is a criminal offense that can also give the employee grounds to sue.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
Time Off You Must Allow
When an employee brings you a jury summons, you have to let them take the time needed to respond, go through selection, and serve if picked. This covers both grand jury and trial jury service, and it applies whether the summons is from a state court or a federal court.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
The point that catches employers off guard: you cannot require the employee to use vacation days, sick leave, or other accrued paid time off for the absence. The statute prohibits it outright. If your company doesn’t offer paid leave in the first place, the law doesn’t force you to invent it.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
No Firing, No Demoting, No Retaliation
You cannot terminate an employee, and you cannot penalize them, because they served on a jury. “Penalize” reaches beyond firing. Demotions, punitive schedule changes, cut hours, or any other adverse action tied to the jury absence all fall inside the prohibition.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
Seniority keeps accruing while the employee is away. When they come back, you must return them to their previous position. If the seniority they built up during the absence would have earned them a promotion, you place them in that higher role instead.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
Do You Have to Pay Them
Arizona doesn’t require employers to pay wages for time spent on jury duty. For hourly and non-exempt workers, the paycheck for jury days is a matter of company policy, not law.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification2AZ Court Help. Does My Employer Have to Pay Me for Serving as a Juror in Arizona?
Salaried exempt employees are different. Federal wage and hour rules bar you from docking an exempt employee’s weekly salary for partial-week absences caused by jury duty. If the employee works any part of the workweek, you owe the full salary for that week.3eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
You do get one offset. You can subtract the jury fees the court actually paid the employee from their salary for the same week without jeopardizing the exempt classification. If the county paid $12 for a day of service, the paycheck can drop by that $12.3eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
The Small-Business Postponement
Arizona builds in one size-based accommodation. If you have five or fewer full-time employees and one is already serving, the court must postpone jury service for any other employee summoned during the same period. That postponement is separate from the one personal postponement each juror is entitled to request.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification
Nothing else in the statute turns on employer size. Companies with six or more full-time workers get no relief, and general inconvenience to the business is not a legal basis for excusing an employee from service.4AZ Court Help. Postponement of Jury Service
Notice from the Employee and Proof of Service
The statute’s protections kick in when the employee gives reasonable advance notice of the summons. Arizona doesn’t fix a specific number of days, so in practice this means the employee should tell you promptly after receiving the summons rather than the night before. A written internal policy stating a reasonable notice window is fine.
You can ask for documentation confirming the employee actually appeared. Courts issue certificates of attendance or clerk-signed forms showing the dates the employee reported. Requesting this for your attendance records is standard.
What It Costs to Get This Wrong
Violating any part of A.R.S. 21-236 is a Class 3 misdemeanor.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 21-236 – Employment Rights; Automatic Postponement; Violation; Classification That includes firing a juror, forcing them to use PTO, refusing to let them serve, or failing to restore their job when they return. A Class 3 misdemeanor carries up to 30 days in jail5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-707 – Misdemeanors; Sentencing and a fine of up to $500.6Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 13-802 – Fines for Misdemeanors The criminal liability can attach to the individual manager or supervisor who made the decision, not only to the business entity.
The bigger financial risk is civil. Arizona courts recognize wrongful termination claims when an employee is fired for fulfilling a civic obligation like jury duty, under the public policy exception to at-will employment. An employee who was fired, demoted, or otherwise punished for serving can sue for reinstatement, lost wages and benefits, and compensatory damages. Back pay, attorney fees, and damages in a clearly retaliatory termination will dwarf the $500 statutory fine, and this is where most of the real exposure lives.
Federal Court Summonses
If the summons is from a United States District Court rather than a state court, none of your obligations change. A.R.S. 21-236 protects employees serving on any jury, and you cannot treat a federal summons differently from a state one when deciding how to handle the absence.