Jury Duty Pay Calculator

How jury duty pay works: court pay, mileage and your paycheck

Money during jury service can come from two places. The court pays an attendance fee for each day you serve, and usually a mileage allowance for the trip. Your employer may also keep paying some or all of your wages, either because its policy says so or because your state requires it. This calculator sets both against what you'd normally earn for the same days.

Federal courts pay $50 for each day of attendance (28 U.S.C. § 1871(b)(1)). A petit juror hearing one case can be paid up to $60 a day after day 10 if the judge orders it, and a grand juror can get the same after day 45 (uscourts.gov Juror Pay). Mileage is paid round trip at the rate the Administrative Office sets, which federal courts post as 76 cents a mile as of July 1, 2026 (see the Middle District of Florida). Tolls are paid in full, and parking is up to the court (§ 1871(c)).

State courts set their own fees, and many pay in tiers. California pays $15 a day starting on the second day, plus 34 cents a mile after the first day (Code of Civil Procedure § 215). Massachusetts and Connecticut pay $50 a day, but only after the days your employer must cover have run out. To enter a tier, tick "My court's daily pay changes after a set number of days" and fill in both rates:

• Federal petit juror, judge-ordered increase: $50 for days 1 to 10, then $60.
• California: $0 for day 1, then $15, with a mileage rate of $0.34.
• Massachusetts: $0 for days 1 to 3, then $50, with the employer policy set to full wages for the first 3 days. Set the mileage rate to $0, because a juror paid the $50 "shall not be entitled to additional reimbursement for travel" (M.G.L. c. 234A § 51).
• Connecticut: $0 for days 1 to 5, then $50, with full wages for the first 5 days. Set the mileage rate to $0 here too, because a juror paid the $50 "shall not be entitled to any additional reimbursement" (C.G.S. § 51-247(c)).

There's no 50-state dropdown on purpose. The fee is printed on your summons or posted on your court's website, so type in that number rather than trusting a table that may be out of date.

Five employer jury duty policies and what each does to your pay

Federal law doesn't make a private employer pay you for jury days. The Fair Labor Standards Act "does not require payment for time not worked, including jury duty," according to the Department of Labor. Some states do require pay. Massachusetts requires regular wages for the first three days (M.G.L. c. 234A § 48), and Connecticut requires them for a full-time employee's first five days (C.G.S. § 51-247(a)). New York bars employers with more than ten employees from withholding the first $72 of a juror's daily wages for the first three days (Judiciary Law § 519). The "first N days" option here pays full wages, so it doesn't model New York's $72 cap exactly.

Take an hourly worker at $22.50 for 8 hours ($180 a day) who serves 5 days in federal court. That's $900 of normal wages, $250 of court fees, and $114 of mileage at 30 miles a day. Before mileage, each policy works out like this:

• Doesn't pay: you get the $250 in fees, a $650 shortfall, 27.8% of normal pay.
• Full wages, you keep the court pay: $900 plus $250, a $250 gain, 127.8%.
• Full wages, you hand the court pay over: $900, no gain or loss, 100.0%. Line 8h is $250, line 24a is $250, and net taxable jury pay is $0.
• Pays the difference: the employer adds $130 a day ($650 in all), so you get $900, 100.0%.
• Full wages for the first 3 days: $540 from the employer plus $250 in fees is $790, a $110 shortfall, 87.8%.

Handing over the check and getting the difference both leave you with $900 here, but they're taxed differently. With the hand-over policy, all $900 is W-2 wages, and the $250 fee goes on Schedule 1 line 8h and comes back off on line 24a. With the difference policy, $650 is W-2 wages and the $250 fee is jury pay you keep, reported on line 8h with nothing withheld. The top-up is also figured one day at a time. On a $56 workday with fees of $50 for 10 days and $60 after that, 12 days of service earns a $60 employer top-up. Subtracting the totals instead ($672 minus $620) would give $52.

Salaried workers who are exempt from overtime get more protection. An exempt employee must receive the full salary for any week in which they do any work, and the employer can't deduct for jury duty absences, though it can offset the jury fees received that week against the salary (29 CFR 541.602(a)(1) and (b)(3)). A week with no work at all doesn't have to be paid. If your employer asks you to cover jury days with paid time off instead, the PTO accrual calculator projects the balance you'll have left.

Your job is protected too. An employer can't fire, threaten, intimidate or coerce a permanent employee because of service on a federal jury. One that does is liable for lost wages and benefits, can be ordered to reinstate the employee, and faces a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation (28 U.S.C. § 1875). State court service falls under state law. In New York, for example, a juror who notified the employer before serving can't be discharged or penalized for it (Judiciary Law § 519).

Is jury duty pay taxable? Schedule 1 lines 8h and 24a

Yes. IRS Publication 525 (2025) says: "Jury duty pay you receive must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8h." If you give the pay to your employer because it kept paying your salary, "you can deduct the amount turned over to your employer as an adjustment to income" on line 24a (Publication 525; Form 1040 instructions). If you hand over all of it, the two lines cancel and your net taxable jury pay is $0.

Courts don't withhold income tax from juror fees (26 CFR 31.3401(a)-2(b)(2)), and IRS Chief Counsel advice concludes that the fees aren't wages or self-employment earnings (Service Center Advice 200028035). So nothing comes out of the court check, and you may owe tax on it when you file. Wages your employer keeps paying are different. They're ordinary W-2 wages, treated like any other salary paid during an absence from work, with normal withholding and FICA (26 CFR 31.3121(a)-1(b), (g)).

Publication 525 says nothing about juror mileage or travel allowances. The calculator keeps mileage on its own line, outside the taxable jury pay figure, and doesn't label it either way. Ask your court how it reports mileage, and check with a tax preparer.

To see take-home on the wages your employer does pay, run them through the hourly paycheck calculator or the salary to paycheck calculator. The pay period converter moves amounts between weekly, biweekly and other pay frequencies, and the prorated salary calculator uses the same 260-workday daily rate for a partial pay period.

For employers: paying staff who are out on jury duty

Pay you continue during jury service goes through payroll as ordinary wages, with the usual withholding and FICA. The court pays the juror fee straight to the employee, and the fee isn't wages. It can still change your payroll: under an offset or pays-the-difference policy, it lowers the gross you pay for those days. For exempt staff, you may offset the fee against that week's salary, but you may not dock the days (29 CFR 541.602(b)(3)).

Put the policy in writing, say whether employees keep or turn over the fee, and check state mandates such as Massachusetts (3 days), Connecticut (5 days for full-time staff) and New York (the first $72 a day for 3 days at employers with more than 10 employees). Holiday weeks raise similar paid-leave questions, and the holiday pay calculator covers those.

When several people are out at once, the multi-employee payroll calculator totals a team pay run, and the WorkLogs44 Payroll Calculator app runs the full payroll with the employer FICA match, FUTA and SUTA, plus take-home for each person.