Election 2024 is here and now is the time for employers in California to refresh themselves on the voting leave and posting requirements they must follow:
– Employers must allow employees time off to vote when needed. There is no set number of hours employers must allow employees off work. Rather, employers must provide employees the time off work that is needed so that, when added to the employees’ available time outside work hours, employees will be able to vote.
– Up to two hours of the time employees take off work to vote must be paid by their employer.
– Employers may require employees to take time off to vote at the beginning or end of their regular shift, whichever allows the greatest amount of free time for voting and the least time off from work.
– Employers may require that employees give at least two days’ advance notice that they will need time off work to vote.
– No later than October 26, 2024, employers must post written notice of employees’ right to time off work to vote. The notice must be posted in a conspicuous place in the workplace, if reasonably possible, or at a place where it can be seen as employees come or go to their place of work. Notice should be emailed to remote employees. A form of the notice in English may be found here. The postings are available here in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.
In-person voting starts well before November 5, 2024!
In San Francisco County, for example, early in-person voting began on October 7 and will continue through November 5. In Sacramento and Los Angeles Counties, in-person voting begins on October 26 and continues through November 5. In Orange County, in-person voting begins in designated early voting locations on October 21 and continues through November 3. Orange County polling places will reopen on election day, November 5. Other counties have their own schedules for early in-person voting.
Employers should permit employees time off to vote, when needed, any day in-person voting is available in the area, not only on November 5.
Each polling place is open from 7:00 a.m. through 8:00 p.m., unless extended by court order.
The leave time statute is set out in California Elections Code section 14000 and the posting requirement is set out in Elections Code section 14001.
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