Jury Duty Leave and Pay Requirements in Nebraska
At a glance
| Governing law | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1674 (formerly § 25-1640; recodified 2020) |
|---|---|
| Jury service covered | Being summoned to serve on jury duty and the absence from employment 'by reason of jury duty' (§ 25-1674); the section speaks to jury duty, not witness or subpoena appearances |
| Employers and employees covered | Written as a flat protection for 'any person who is summoned to serve on jury duty' and a flat duty on 'no employer'; § 25-1674 states no employer-size, tenure, or classification gate |
| Time-off entitlement | The absence from employment by reason of jury duty is protected on reasonable notice: the employee may not be subjected to discharge or 'any other form of penalty' for it (§ 25-1674) |
| Employer-paid wages | Pay continues. The employee may not suffer 'loss of pay' for a jury-duty absence, except that the employer 'may reduce the pay of an employee by an amount equal to any compensation, other than expenses, paid by the court for jury duty' (§ 25-1674). So the employer effectively pays the difference between regular wages and the court's juror fee |
| PTO and juror-fee treatment | The employee may not be forced to lose sick leave or vacation time for jury service (§ 25-1674). The employer's only permitted offset is the court's jury-duty compensation (other than expenses), which it may deduct from the wages it owes |
| Employee notice and proof | The protections apply 'upon giving reasonable notice to his or her employer of such summons' (§ 25-1674); the section sets no written-notice form or summons-copy requirement |
| Scheduling and return-to-work rules | An employee summoned to serve 'shall be excused upon request from any shift work for those days required to serve as a juror without loss of pay' (§ 25-1674) — a shift-work-excusal protection many states lack |
| Job protection and remedies | No employer may subject an employee to discharge, loss of pay, loss of sick leave, loss of vacation time, or any other penalty because of a jury-duty absence; a person who violates the section is guilty of a Class IV misdemeanor (§ 25-1674) |
Requirements one by one
Protected jury-service absence
Section 25-1674 says a summoned person “shall not be subject to discharge from employment, loss of pay, loss of sick leave, loss of vacation time, or any other form of penalty” because of the jury-duty absence after giving reasonable notice of the summons.
Pay, leave balances, and the juror fee
The employer may reduce pay only “by an amount equal to any compensation, other than expenses, paid by the court for jury duty.” Because the same section expressly bars loss of sick leave and vacation time, those balances cannot be used to replace the statutory paid-leave protection.
Shift scheduling
A summoned employee “shall be excused upon request from any shift work for those days required to serve as a juror without loss of pay.” The request is an express condition of this additional shift-work protection.
Penalty
The section ends with a direct enforcement rule: “Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a Class IV misdemeanor.” It does not state a separate civil-damages formula.
What trips people up
The juror-fee offset does not include expenses. The other recurring source of confusion is the citation: the protection was formerly § 25-1640 and was recodified as § 25-1674 in 2020, so older handouts may still use the prior number.
Common questions
Can the employer offset a court travel reimbursement? No. Section 25-1674 excludes expenses from the compensation the employer may offset.
Does the shift-work protection happen automatically? The statute says the employee is excused “upon request,” so the employee should make the request rather than assume the schedule will be changed automatically.
Statutes and sources
- Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-1674 (formerly § 25-1640): bars discharge, loss of pay, or loss of leave for jury service on reasonable notice, permits only a juror-fee offset, provides a shift-work excusal without loss of pay, and makes a violation a Class IV misdemeanor — Nebraska Legislature official statute text (accessed August 20, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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