As the presidential and state elections come upon us, I received a great question from one of my clients.

I usually allow my employees paid leave to go vote. However, is there any federal law that requires me to pay my employees to go vote?

There are no federal laws that require an employer to grant leave for the purposes of voting; however there are state laws that govern this issue.

In Iowa, under State Code 49.109 An employee may have paid leave, unless an employee has three consecutive hours to vote outside work; an employee must give written notice; an employer can designate time an employee can leave to vote.

Nothing like citing Iowa Code to get everyone excited. To answer the question above the polling places in Iowa start at 7am and end at 9pm. If it is typical for your employees to get off at 5pm then that allows them 4 hours to vote. Therefor you would not be obligated to pay for time off. However, most employers do give the employee paid time off and it helps give an incentive to get your employees out to vote.

Since each state is different and some require you to pay your employees, it might be a good idea to take a look at this site and find your specific state.

Flickr photo by stickware