Missouri: Jury Duty Leave and Pay Requirements
The short answer
Missouri bars an employer from terminating, disciplining, threatening, or taking adverse action against an employee because the employee received or responded to a jury summons. The employer may not require or request use of annual, vacation, personal, or sick leave, but Missouri does not generally require employer-paid wages for jury duty. A discharged employee has 90 days to sue for lost wages, other damages, reinstatement, and attorney's fees.
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This is the general rule in Missouri. Ezel applies current Missouri law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | Mo. Rev. Stat. § 494.460 |
|---|---|
| Jury service covered | Protection is tied to receiving or responding to a jury summons; no-forced-leave rule expressly covers responding to the summons, jury selection, and actual jury service (§ 494.460.1, .3) |
| Employers and employees covered | Employees and employers generally; no size, tenure, full-time, or permanent-worker exclusion from the employment protections. A separate court-postponement rule applies to employers with five or fewer full-time employees or equivalent (§ 494.460.4) |
| Time-off entitlement | No stand-alone affirmative leave sentence, but employer may not terminate, discipline, threaten, or take adverse action because of receipt of or response to a jury summons, and protected leave categories cover summons response, selection, and service (§ 494.460.1, .3) |
| Employer-paid wages | No general employer wage-continuation requirement; § 494.460.3 bars forced use of listed leave but expressly does not require an employer to provide those benefits |
| PTO and juror-fee treatment | Employer may not require or request use of annual, vacation, personal, or sick leave for summons response, selection, or service; statute does not address juror-fee offsets (§ 494.460.3) |
| Employee notice and proof | No employee advance-notice, summons-copy, or attendance-proof condition stated in § 494.460; the protection attaches to receipt of or response to the summons |
| Scheduling and return-to-work rules | Court must automatically postpone and reschedule a summoned juror employed by an employer with five or fewer full-time workers or equivalent when another employee was previously summoned for the same period; no night-shift or return-to-work rule stated (§ 494.460.4) |
| Job protection and remedies | No termination, discipline, threats, or adverse action because of summons receipt/response. Discharged employee may sue within 90 days for lost wages, other violation-caused damages, and reinstatement; prevailing employee receives reasonable attorney's fee (§ 494.460.1-.2) |
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Protection begins with the summons
Missouri prohibits termination, discipline, threats, or other adverse action
because an employee received or responded to a jury summons. The section does
not state a fixed advance-notice deadline or require the employee to hand the
employer a copy of the summons or an attendance certificate.
The statute protects the employment relationship but does not contain a
separate sentence affirmatively ordering a particular number of leave days.
Its no-forced-leave subsection nevertheless expressly reaches time spent
responding to the summons, participating in jury selection, and actually
serving on a jury.
Listed leave balances cannot be forced
An employer may not require or request that an employee use annual, vacation,
personal, or sick leave for covered jury time. The statute also says this rule
does not require an employer to create any of those benefits for an employee
who is not otherwise entitled to them under company policy.
Section 494.460 does not require wage continuation and does not coordinate
employer wages with court-paid juror fees. Jury-duty time is therefore
generally unpaid unless an employer policy, agreement, or another applicable
rule supplies pay.
Very small employers receive court scheduling relief
When an employer has five or fewer full-time employees, or their equivalent,
and one employee was already summoned for a period that overlaps another
employee's summons, the court must automatically postpone and reschedule the
second service. The postponement does not consume the individual's separate
automatic-postponement right under § 494.432.
That mechanism changes the court date; it is not an exemption from the
employment protections. Missouri states no general night-shift rest period or
same-day return-to-work requirement in § 494.460.
A discharge starts a short filing clock
An employee discharged in violation of the section may bring a civil action
within 90 days of discharge. The express remedies are lost wages, other damages
caused by the violation, and an order directing reinstatement. A prevailing
employee is entitled to a reasonable attorney's fee.
The prohibited-conduct language is broader than the express civil-remedy
sentence: subsection 1 also names discipline, threats, and adverse actions,
while subsection 2 specifically describes an employee who was discharged.
What trips people up
Missouri's ban on forced leave does not make jury duty paid. It preserves the
listed balances and expressly declines to require employers to provide those
benefits; it does not require regular wage continuation.
The five-employee provision likewise does not let an employer refuse the
absence. It requires the court to separate overlapping jury-service periods.
Common questions
Must a Missouri employer pay wages during jury duty?
No general wage-continuation requirement appears in § 494.460. An employer
policy or agreement may provide paid jury leave.
Can the employer make the employee use PTO?
Not the categories named in the statute: annual, vacation, personal, or sick
leave may not be required or requested for summons response, selection, or
service.
Does the employee have to provide a copy of the summons?
Section 494.460 states no summons-copy or attendance-proof requirement and no
fixed notice period.
How long does a fired employee have to sue?
Ninety days from discharge under the express statutory civil action.
Statutes and sources
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 494.460.1-.4: job protection, 90-day civil remedy,
no-forced-leave rule, and small-employer rescheduling —
official text
(accessed July 13, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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