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canyonwalkerI got a check today for my day of jury service last month. It was actually my third day of jury service and second day onsite. State law is that you're only paid for onsite days starting with your second.
The pay for jury service is... hideously low. Here's the statement that came today:
As you can see, the pay is $15/day.
How absurd is that? Minimum wage in San Jose is $17/hour. It's even higher in other cities in the county. For example, here in Sunnyvale it's $17.95. In neighboring Mountain View, $18.15. Even going with San Jose's comparatively low rate, the daily pay of $15 is less than one hour of minimum wage. Except that's not the hourly pay; it's the daily pay.
The travel stipend is laughable, too. The county computes it by multiplying some mileage rate by the distance from your zip code to the courthouse. The actual drive is 9 miles each way. At the government rate of 65.5 cents/mile (specified by the IRS for 2023) that's $11.79 round trip, more than twice the travel stipend. And if I didn't own a car, riding public transit is worse. Transit would cost $11 each way and take over 1 hour. Versus the $5.44 stipend.
Now you can see why many people strive to get out of jury duty for financial reasons. If you're self-employed, or if you work at low paying job that doesn't pay for jury duty (employers are required to grant you time off but not required to pay) you can't afford it.
The pay for jury service is... hideously low. Here's the statement that came today:
As you can see, the pay is $15/day.
How absurd is that? Minimum wage in San Jose is $17/hour. It's even higher in other cities in the county. For example, here in Sunnyvale it's $17.95. In neighboring Mountain View, $18.15. Even going with San Jose's comparatively low rate, the daily pay of $15 is less than one hour of minimum wage. Except that's not the hourly pay; it's the daily pay.
The travel stipend is laughable, too. The county computes it by multiplying some mileage rate by the distance from your zip code to the courthouse. The actual drive is 9 miles each way. At the government rate of 65.5 cents/mile (specified by the IRS for 2023) that's $11.79 round trip, more than twice the travel stipend. And if I didn't own a car, riding public transit is worse. Transit would cost $11 each way and take over 1 hour. Versus the $5.44 stipend.
Now you can see why many people strive to get out of jury duty for financial reasons. If you're self-employed, or if you work at low paying job that doesn't pay for jury duty (employers are required to grant you time off but not required to pay) you can't afford it.
