As people across the country make their voices heard in the general election, many will need time away from work in order to cast their ballot. While no federal law currently guarantees the right to time away from work to vote, many states have laws that provide time off from work for voters to cast a ballot. This fact sheet surveys state laws providing the right to time away from work in order to vote.
Why do people need workplace leave to vote?
In 2022, the most common reason registered voters cited for not voting was “too busy, conflicting work or school schedule.”1 In other words, finding time around their scheduled work hours stood in the way of many Americans’ ability to exercise their most fundamental right. While some employers voluntarily provide time off to vote,2 others do not. Along with other reforms needed to make voting easier and more accessible,3 ensuring Americans can take time off from work to vote can reduce this barrier to voting.
Leave from work to vote may be of particular importance to those who face the greatest challenges in voting. For example, parents of young children, particularly mothers, are less likely to vote than those without children.4 Voting leave gives working parents additional flexibility to balance work, care, and civic responsibilities. Low-wage workers often have unpredictable work schedules that can change at the last minute and involve back-to-back shifts.5 That unpredictability can make it difficult for them to find time to vote. Workers of color, particularly women of color, are more likely to face unpredictable and challenging schedules,6 potentially compounding the growing racial voter turnout gap.7 More broadly, the unevenly distributed increase in workers working from home means that workers in some heavily low-wage industries8 such as manufacturing, retail, and hospitality and food services are comparatively more likely to work in person.
9 Working on-site, as opposed to at home, makes it more likely that voters will be farther from their polling place on Election Day and therefore find it harder to get to and from their designated polling location around work hours.10
Voting leave, early voting, and mail voting
In recent years, major expansions in early in-person and mail voting have increased opportunities to vote,11 reducing the pressures of finding time to vote on Election Day. However, there is still considerable and concerning variation among state early voting laws, including many states where early voting is primarily or exclusively limited to business hours.
12 In addition, many states do not offer early in-person voting at all or do so only with limited days.13 As a result, many eligible voters may still have limited access to the polls outside of their scheduled work hours. Similarly, access to mail voting has expanded in recent years,14 giving voters even more of an opportunity to vote based on their own schedule, but it still remains far from universally accessible.
What laws give workers the right to time off to vote?
No federal law gives workers the right to time off from work or schedule changes to accommodate voting. In Congress, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) have introduced the Time Off to Vote Act,15 which would require employers to provide at least two consecutive hours of paid leave to vote in any federal election. In addition, the proposed Freedom to Vote Act would make Election Day a federal holiday.16
Twenty states along with the District of Columbia currently guarantee employees the right to paid leave from work in order to vote, subject to conditions that vary by state.17 Eight additional states provide legal rights to unpaid time off work or schedule changes in order to vote,18 and North Dakota has a statute encouraging but not requiring employers to provide time off to vote.19
What rights do voting leave laws provide?
State voting leave laws generally give employees the right to take time off from work to vote20 or require employers to provide time off to vote within specified parameters.21 Many state voting leave laws also prohibit employers from penalizing workers for taking this leave.22 In most states with voting leave laws, voters must be paid for the time they take off to vote or cannot have their pay reduced because they took time off to vote.23
How much time off do voting leave laws provide?
Although the amount of time off that state voting leave laws provide varies by state, most state voting leave laws provide between one24 and three hours of covered leave,25 with two hours of covered leave being the most common duration.26 Kentucky, which has an unusual state constitutional right to voting leave rather than a statutory one, provides up to four hours.27 In a few states, the maximum time is not specified by statute28 or varies by distance from the workplace to the poll site.29
In many states, voters are not entitled to voting leave if they have a specified minimum period of time when the polls are open outside their work hours.30 In other states, laws are based on ensuring a minimum window of consecutive nonworking hours to vote. Often, the amount of time that workers can take is dependent on how much time outside of work they have to vote: For example, workers may be able to take leave at the beginning or end of their shift such that they end up with a sufficient total time period in which to vote. 31 Commonly, state laws that provide voting leave allow employers to specify the hours during which employees can take leave32 or require employees to apply for or provide notice of leave in advance.33
Conclusion
When those who need to are able to take time off work to vote, access to voting becomes fairer and more expansive. Existing state voting leave laws offer important models to consider and build upon, which can complement and support urgently needed reforms to voting rights protections.34 In these difficult times,35 Americans are in desperate need of any additional protections that will safeguard their right to the ballot box.
The author would like to thank Greta Bedekovics, Kate Kelly, Amina Khalique, and Rebecca Mears for their contributions.