In Colorado, jury duty pay comes from two sources in sequence: your employer covers your regular wages for the first three days of service, capped at $50 per day, and the state pays you $50 per day starting on the fourth day. The split is set by Title 13, Article 71 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, and it applies whether you work full-time, part-time, temporary, or casual hours.
What Your Employer Owes for the First Three Days
For your first three days of jury service, your employer must pay your regular wages, up to $50 per day, unless the two of you agree on a higher amount. The obligation covers full-time, part-time, temporary, and casual employees, as long as your work hours can be determined from a schedule, custom, or practice established during the three months before your jury term began.1Justia. Colorado Code 13-71-126 – Compensation of Employed Jurors During First Three Days of Service
The cap matters. If you normally earn $40 a day, your employer pays $40. If you normally earn $80, your employer pays $50 unless you have a more generous arrangement. Employers can voluntarily pay more, and many do, but $50 is the statutory floor-turned-ceiling for anyone whose daily wage runs higher.
Self-employed and unemployed jurors do not receive anything from an employer for those first three days. There is no state payment during that window either, so short trials can mean short-term uncompensated time for people who work for themselves.
What the State Pays From Day Four Onward
Starting on the fourth day of service, the state pays every juror $50 per day for each additional day, regardless of employment status.2Justia. Colorado Code 13-71-129 – Compensation of Jurors After First Three Days of Service That payment goes to you directly, not through your employer.
Whether your employer continues to pay your wages after day three is up to your employer. Some do as a matter of policy; the statute does not require it. If your employer stops paying, the $50 state check is the only compensation you’ll receive for the rest of the trial.
When an Employer Can Be Excused From Paying
Paying an employee on jury duty can strain a small business, and the law has a valve for that. If paying your wages during those first three days would cause your employer genuine financial hardship, the court can excuse the employer from the obligation. When that happens, the state pays you up to $50 per day for the first three days instead.3Justia. Colorado Code 13-71-127 – Financial Hardship
The employer has to move quickly. A written request for a hardship hearing must be filed within 30 days of receiving the juror service acknowledgment. Miss that window and the employer stays on the hook.
If Your Employer Doesn’t Pay You
The statute gives you real leverage when a paycheck for jury service doesn’t show up. You can sue your employer for unpaid wages once 30 days have passed since you submitted your juror service acknowledgment. If the court finds the nonpayment was willful, it can award treble damages (three times what you were owed) plus reasonable attorney fees. And here the employer cannot fall back on the financial hardship defense to avoid liability.4Justia. Colorado Code 13-71-133 – Penalties and Enforcement Remedies for Failure to Compensate Jurors
That last piece is important. Hardship is something the employer had to raise up front, through the court, within the 30-day window. Skipping the hearing and then refusing to pay is not a route the statute leaves open.
Protection From Retaliation for Serving
Pay is one piece of the protection package. The other is job security. Your employer cannot fire you, cut your benefits, demote you, threaten you, or otherwise penalize you for receiving a summons, responding to it, or serving. The law also bars employers from making demands that substantially interfere with your ability to serve effectively.5Colorado Judicial Branch. Information for Employers
If your employer retaliates, you can file a civil lawsuit seeking damages, reinstatement, or both. Willful violations trigger the same treble damages plus attorney fees available for unpaid wages. These civil actions are decided by a judge rather than a jury.5Colorado Judicial Branch. Information for Employers
Willful retaliation is also a crime. An employer who deliberately violates these rules commits a class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 120 days in jail, a fine of up to $750, or both.5Colorado Judicial Branch. Information for Employers
How the Pay Structure Works in Practice
Think of jury pay in Colorado as three tracks running side by side.
If you work for an employer that pays your normal wages, the first three days generally cost you nothing (subject to the $50 cap on the employer’s obligation). From day four, you also collect the $50 state payment on top of whatever your employer chooses to continue paying.
If you work for an employer that received a hardship excusal, the state pays you up to $50 per day from day one, and continues to pay $50 per day starting on day four.
If you are self-employed or unemployed, you receive nothing for the first three days and $50 per day beginning on the fourth. That gap is one of the most common reasons jurors request a hardship excusal or postponement from the court, though those are separate processes from employer pay.
What to Do Before You Report
A few practical steps make the pay side of jury service go smoothly. Tell your employer as soon as you receive the summons and confirm in writing how wages will be handled for the first three days. Keep a copy of your juror service acknowledgment; the 30-day clocks for both the employer’s hardship request and any unpaid-wage lawsuit run from that document. Save any paystubs or missing paychecks covering your service dates. If your employer signals they intend to seek a hardship excusal, ask when they plan to file, because they have only 30 days to do it.
If a paycheck doesn’t arrive or you are pressured to skip service, the statute puts the enforcement tools on your side. Treble damages and attorney fees are not theoretical remedies here; they are written into the law for exactly this situation.