In Georgia, jury duty pay is not something private employers are required to provide. State law forces your employer to give you the time off and protects your job while you serve, but the paycheck side is optional unless your contract, handbook, or union agreement says otherwise. The court itself pays a small daily stipend, and a few narrow situations change the picture.
What Georgia Law Requires on Pay
Georgia employers must let you attend jury duty without punishing you for it, but they don’t have to keep paying you while you’re gone. Georgia.gov states that employers “are required to grant employees time off, though it may be unpaid, to serve jury duty.”1Georgia.gov. Serve Jury Duty The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia puts it more directly: “there is no law enforcing employers to pay employees for the time they missed while on jury duty.”2Northern District of Georgia. Does My Employer Have to Pay Me My Normal Wages if I’m Serving on a Jury?
That said, plenty of larger employers voluntarily offer paid jury leave as a benefit. If your employee handbook, offer letter, or union contract promises jury duty pay, that promise is enforceable even though the state doesn’t mandate it. Read your written policies before your service date so you know what to expect on your next paycheck.
What the Court Pays You
Georgia courts pay jurors a daily expense allowance set by each county’s board of commissioners. The amount can’t be less than $5 or more than $50 per day, and most counties land around $25.3Justia. Georgia Code 15-12-7 – Compensation of Court Bailiffs and Expense Allowance for Trial or Grand Jurors The allowance applies to every day you report, including days you show up for jury selection and don’t end up on a case.
Federal court pays more. If you’re summoned to a U.S. District Court in Georgia, you’ll receive $50 per day of attendance. For trials lasting more than ten days, the judge can increase that to $60 per day for each additional day beyond the tenth.4United States Courts. Juror Pay Federal courts also reimburse travel expenses, which state courts generally do not.
The Exception for Exempt Salaried Employees
If you’re classified as an exempt salaried employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the analysis flips. Your employer cannot dock your pay for partial-week absences caused by jury duty. The U.S. Department of Labor lists deducting pay from an exempt employee’s salary for jury duty as an improper deduction that can jeopardize the employee’s exempt status.5U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Overtime Security Advisor Salaried exempt workers effectively receive paid jury leave by default, regardless of what company policy says.
One catch. Your employer can offset the jury fees the court pays you against your salary for that week. If you earn $1,200 per week and collect $125 in jury fees, the employer can pay you $1,075 and still satisfy the salary basis requirement.6eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 The offset applies to jury fees only, not to mileage reimbursements.
Can Your Employer Make You Use PTO?
Yes. No federal or Georgia state law prevents your employer from requiring you to use accrued vacation days or paid time off for jury duty absences. Many companies do exactly that, treating jury service the same way they’d treat any other personal absence. Whether it’s allowed at your workplace depends on the written leave policy. If the policy doesn’t address jury duty specifically, you may have room to push back, but the law is on the employer’s side.
For exempt salaried workers, the calculation is slightly different. Because your salary can’t be reduced for jury duty absences in the first place, burning PTO is less about covering lost pay and more about keeping your time-off bank accurate. Read the policy carefully before assuming your PTO stays intact.
Job Protection: What Georgia Does Guarantee
Georgia’s strongest protection for jurors isn’t about pay. It’s about keeping your job. Under O.C.G.A. 34-1-3, your employer cannot fire, discipline, or otherwise penalize you for missing work to serve on a jury. The statute also makes it illegal for an employer to threaten retaliation or pressure you into skipping service.7Justia. Georgia Code 34-1-3 – Discrimination Against Employee for Attending a Judicial Proceeding in Response to a Court Order or Process The protection kicks in the moment you’re required to appear, whether you end up sitting on a trial or get dismissed during jury selection.
If your employer retaliates, your remedy is a civil lawsuit. The statute entitles you to recover all actual damages you suffered plus reasonable attorney’s fees if your claim succeeds. A Georgia Attorney General opinion has confirmed that the statute creates a private right of action, meaning you sue your employer directly in court rather than filing an administrative complaint with a state agency.8Office of the Attorney General (Georgia). Official Opinion 95-13 Actual damages can include lost wages, lost benefits, and other financial harm directly caused by the employer’s illegal conduct.
Federal Jury Service Adds Another Layer
Workers called to serve in a federal court in Georgia get additional protection under 28 U.S.C. 1875. Federal law prohibits employers from firing, threatening, intimidating, or coercing any permanent employee because of jury service in a U.S. court.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment The penalties are steeper than under Georgia’s state statute:
- A civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, per employee.
- Recovery of any wages or benefits lost because of the violation.
- A court order restoring your job, with no loss of seniority and full restoration of benefits.
- Reasonable attorney’s fees for a prevailing employee, with the court able to appoint counsel if you can’t afford one and your claim has probable merit.
If you’re reinstated after being fired for federal jury service, the law treats your time serving as a leave of absence. You step back into your position as though you never left, with seniority and benefit eligibility intact.
Documenting Your Service and Handling Disputes
Most employers will want proof you actually served. Courts typically issue a certificate of attendance confirming which days you reported. Some hand these out daily, others at the end of service. Ask the court clerk about the process on your first day.
Georgia law doesn’t set a deadline for notifying your employer, but telling them as soon as the summons arrives is the obvious move. Bring a copy of the summons to your supervisor and keep one for yourself. If a dispute comes up later, a paper trail showing prompt notification and verified attendance makes your position much stronger.
Disputes over jury duty pay usually turn on whether the employer’s own policy promised something it didn’t deliver. Since Georgia doesn’t mandate pay, the legal question isn’t whether the employer broke the law but whether it broke its own contract. Keep copies of your summons, court proof of service, pay stubs showing any missing wages, and the written policy or contract provision that promised compensation. The Georgia Department of Labor does not typically handle these private contract disputes, so pursuing the matter usually means small claims court or civil litigation depending on the amount at stake.
When retaliation overlaps with a pay dispute, the analysis changes. If your employer cuts your hours, docks your pay, or fires you specifically because you served on a jury, that’s a violation of O.C.G.A. 34-1-3, and you can recover actual damages and attorney’s fees through a civil lawsuit.7Justia. Georgia Code 34-1-3 – Discrimination Against Employee for Attending a Judicial Proceeding in Response to a Court Order or Process