Employers May Be Required to Provide Time Off for Employees to Vote
With the 2024 election just under two months away, employees across the country are making plans to fulfil their civic duty. For some employees, participating in Election Day on November 5, 2024 may interfere with work schedules and they may request time off to cast their ballots.
When responding to these requests, New York and New Jersey employers must keep in mind their legal obligations for voting leave time:
New York State Employers
In New York, employees are eligible for up to two hours of paid time off to vote if they do not have “sufficient time to vote” – meaning they do not have four consecutive hours before or after work to go to the polls. For example, if polls are open from 6AM-9PM, an employee who is scheduled to work 9AM-6PM is entitled to take one paid hour off before or after their shift. The employer is allowed to decide when the employee can take this time off.
Employers are required to provide paid time off only to eligible employees who notify their employers between 10 and 2 working days before Election Day of their need for time off.
Lastly, at least ten days before Election Day, New York employers must post a notice in the workplace informing employees of their voting leave rights. The notice is available here: https://elections.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2023/08/timeofftovotenotice.pdf.
New Jersey Employers
New Jersey employers are not obligated to provide time off from work for employees to vote.
If you have any questions regarding employee voting leave policies, please contact Chaim Book at cbook@booklawllp.com, Sheryl Galler at SGaller@booklawllp.com, or Nadav Zamir@booklawllp.com.
