Your boss may owe you paid vacation on Election Day

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — If you have to work on Election Day, your employer may be required to provide you with paid time off to vote.

Under Arizona law, employees who do not have three consecutive hours to vote before or after their shift are entitled to time off without facing penalties or loss of wages.

“It’s a law that most people are unfamiliar with because it so rarely becomes relevant, and now that mail-in voting is becoming more popular, it has no real impact for many people,” Scottsdale attorney John Balitis said specializes in labor and employment issues. “But there are obviously still many people who enjoy the experience of going to the polls and voting in person, and it is important for those people to be knowledgeable about the law.”

If you traditionally work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the law will not directly impact you. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, giving you three hours to vote before your work day begins.

Let’s say you work a 10-hour shift from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. You would only have two hours before work or one hour after work, so your employer would have to give you at least one hour of paid time off.

“It is the employer’s prerogative to set the hour,” Balitis said. “I doubt many employers want to give you three hours in the middle of the day, so they usually tell you, ‘Okay. You can take an hour in the morning or an hour in the afternoon or whatever to make up for that three-hour window.”

If you plan to take paid time off to vote, you must notify your employer at least one day before Election Day.

“The law is completely silent on how you give notice,” Balitis said. “You could put it in writing. You could give it orally. You could send an email message. The law does not provide for specific information, so any form of notice would probably be appropriate.”

This only applies to Tuesday, November 5th – Election Day.

Even though in-person voting is possible in Arizona, you cannot request paid time off to vote on any day other than Election Day, Balitis said. Under the law, employers who refuse to provide paid leave to eligible employees may face misdemeanor criminal charges.

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