States that mandate paid time off for voting
The 20 states that require companies to offer paid time off to their employees include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columba, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
While employees working in the states listed above are legally entitled to PTO when they vote, every state has certain stipulations. Except for Minnesota, which doesn’t place any specific time limits on the activity, these states grant employees with up to one to three hours of paid leave, so check your state’s individual policy before booking off time.
States that mandate unpaid time off for voting
12 states currently mandate unpaid time off for employees, including: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Like the states that offer PTO for voting, there are certain stipulations around taking unpaid leave if you work in the states above. Except for Ohio, which doesn’t specify the amount of time workers are eligible to take off, the states let you take anywhere from one to three successive hours out of the day.
States that don’t currently mandate any time off for voting
If you live in the following 18 states, your company isn’t legally required to give you any time off work for voting: Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
While it’s true that these states are currently free from voting leave laws, companies operating in these regions can still offer their employees the privilege without being legally coerced. To find out if your company is one of them, we’d recommend checking its employee handbook or reaching out to a manager or a member of its HR department.