Do Texas employers have to give time off for jury duty?
You cannot discharge, threaten, intimidate or coerce a permanent employee for serving. Reinstatement turns on the notice they give you.
Last updated: August 02, 2026
Direct Answer
Yes. Texas employers must allow employees time off to serve on a jury and may not terminate, threaten, or otherwise retaliate against a permanent employee because of jury service. Texas law does not require private employers to pay for jury duty leave, although many choose to pay some or all of it. Exempt employees generally must receive their full salary for any week in which they perform work.
Controlling authority: Tex. Elec. Code sec. 276.004 (voting), Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 122 (jury service) and USERRA. These are the only leaves Texas law itself requires.
What the statute actually prohibits
The protection is about the job, and it has teeth. An employee fired for responding to a jury summons can seek reinstatement and significant damages. The safest operating rule is simple: a jury summons is never a legitimate factor in any attendance, discipline, or termination decision.
Pay works differently than protection. Private Texas employers are not required to pay nonexempt employees for time spent on jury service. For exempt employees, federal salary rules apply: if the exempt employee performs any work during the week, deductions for jury service time generally are not allowed, though the employer may offset the juror fee the court pays.
| Leave | The rule | The detail employers miss |
|---|---|---|
| Voting | An employer may not refuse to permit an employee to be absent to vote on election day or during early voting, or penalise them for voting | The exception: none of this applies if the polls are open for two consecutive hours outside the employee’s working hours. “Penalty” includes a reduction in wages. Class C misdemeanour. |
| Jury service | An employer may not discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate or coerce a permanent employee for jury service | The employee is entitled to return to the same job on giving actual notice of intent to return as soon as practical after release. Class B misdemeanour, and contempt is separately available. |
| Military service | USERRA governs reemployment, benefits and protection | Texas public employers have additional state provisions; check yours. |
| Everything else | No Texas requirement | Sick leave, vacation, bereavement, holidays: all policy, not statute. |
Reinstatement depends on the employee’s notice, not yours
Attendance policies are the trap. A no-fault points system that counts jury days as absences is a retaliation claim written in advance. Jury service should be coded as protected leave, invisible to any attendance metric.
The second trap is informal pressure. A manager who says the timing is bad, hints that the employee should get excused, or reassigns shifts punitively creates the same exposure as a termination. Train supervisors to say one thing: bring us the summons and we will handle coverage.
| Subject | Texas position | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Employment at will | The default rule, limited only by statute, contract, and one narrow common-law exception | Sabine Pilot is the only judicially created exception. |
| Right to work | Employment may not be conditioned on union membership or non-membership (ch. 101) | Not the same thing as at-will. The two are constantly confused, including in HR policies. |
| Minimum wage | Adopts the federal rate; no state increase | The exposure is in deductions and unpaid time. |
| Overtime | No state overtime law and no daily overtime | Federal FLSA does all the work. |
| Paid sick leave | No state or local mandate | Local ordinances were struck down or preempted. Obligations come from your own policy. |
| Family leave | No state family leave statute | FMLA, ADA and PWFA are the whole framework. |
| Final pay | Six calendar days on discharge, next payday on resignation | One of the few areas where Texas is more specific than federal law. |
| Non-compete | Enforceable within statutory limits (sec. 15.50) | Texas is comparatively permissive, but the limits are real. |
| Workers’ compensation | Optional for private employers | The only state where that is true. |
Where jury duty handling fails
Jury duty claims are rare but almost always self-inflicted. Watch for these patterns.
- Attendance points assessed for jury service days
- Managers pressuring employees to seek excusal
- Termination or discipline shortly after jury service
- Salary deductions for exempt employees who worked part of the week
- No written jury duty policy, leaving each manager to improvise
Check your policy against the statute
Check your attendance policy and your timekeeping codes. If jury duty has no dedicated code, it is probably being recorded as an unexcused absence somewhere, and that record is discoverable.
Decide the pay question in writing before it comes up: unpaid, fully paid, or paid for a set number of days. Any of those is lawful for nonexempt staff. Ambiguity is the only wrong answer.
Shows which Texas obligations apply to you, and what changed this session.
When service is extended
Get help before acting if you are considering discipline or termination for anyone who recently served on a jury, even for unrelated reasons. Timing alone can carry a claim.
A leave policy review can align jury duty, voting, and military leave in one pass, which is cheaper than fixing them one claim at a time.
Get a Straight Answer for Your Situation
General rules only go so far. If this question is live in your organization right now, talk it through with a senior HR consultant before you act. One conversation now costs less than one claim later.
Contact UsThis page provides general HR information for employers and is not legal advice. For legal interpretation or representation, consult qualified employment counsel.