Should jurors get paid while serving, and if so, how much? Upon request, should they be sent money in advance for the cost of transportation and/or for the postage needed to mail back their summons with a request for postponement or excusal?
It is my opinion that self-employed or unemployed jurors should be paid at least double the minimum hourly wage for each hour served on jury duty. This should also be the case for employed jurors whose employer does not pay its employees while they are on jury duty. If a juror's employer is already paying the juror in full while s/he serves, the court should not be required to pay the juror unless that juror is earning less than double the minimum wage in which case the government should make up the difference. As a huge compromise on the matter, I might reluctantly be able to accept jurors being paid minimum wage, but not a penny less.
Jurors are being asked to perform an intellectual, cognitive, and interpersonal task which is at least at the level of what is required of an office worker who is earning twice the minimum wage. It would be insulting to pay a juror even minimum wage since such jobs, essentially by definition, are considered to be low-skilled and/or entry-level jobs. To pay jurors a token $12 for an entire business day as is done in my county is simply obscene. To be fair, the pay rate goes up for each day served (to a maximum of $40 per day), but this is still far too low, and still works out to be less than minimum wage.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that many Americans (including the middle class) live paycheck-to-paycheck (assuming they are employed at all), and have little to no savings on hand. Many poor Americans simply live day by day. Many do not have the money to lay out in advance that is needed to transport themselves to and from the courthouse. In the case of my county, the fact that the court provides a parking lot with free parking for jurors doesn't help those who don't have a car and can't afford public transportation. The fact that the juror will be paid $12 by check a few weeks later doesn't help either. It should also be noted that the summons I received states that requests for postponements and excusals are only accepted in writing, yet many people can't even afford the cost of a postage stamp since it's the same price as half of a double cheeseburger from a fast food “dollar menu” which will at least fill their bellies for a few hours (albeit in an unhealthy manner). In short, most Americans are in a big financial mess. The reasons why are not the point. This is something that America's court system needs to consider if it wants to improve juror turnout.
I refuse to accept the assertion that the budget doesn't exist for what I am proposing. If an imprisoned serial rapist proclaims, "My tummy hurts" (perhaps because he bought and ate too much candy from the prison commissary), the US Government somehow finds a way to come up with the money to fix it lest he sue the government and/or turn it into a “political nightmare.” We also somehow find the money to serve the aforementioned serial rapist three reasonably tasty meals each day, and serve them in recognizable form and at a pleasing temperature no less. America is a very wealthy, first-world country. I do not accept the “no money” argument for one instant.
For better or for worse, America is a capitalist society. “Money talks.” If our goal is to fill jury waiting rooms, we need to ensure that jurors will not take any financial loss whatsoever by serving. (For simplicity, I am avoiding a discussion of the wealthy who cannot reasonably claim any financial hardship). We also need to pay jurors such that they will not feel as though they are being exploited, and not feel that the work they are doing as a juror is equivalent to that of a low-skilled or entry-level worker.
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Jurors are being asked to perform an intellectual, cognitive, and interpersonal task which is at least at the level of what is required of an office worker who is earning twice the minimum wage. It would be insulting to pay a juror even minimum wage since such jobs, essentially by definition, are considered to be low-skilled and/or entry-level jobs. To pay jurors a token $12 for an entire business day as is done in my county is simply obscene. To be fair, the pay rate goes up for each day served (to a maximum of $40 per day), but this is still far too low, and still works out to be less than minimum wage.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that many Americans (including the middle class) live paycheck-to-paycheck (assuming they are employed at all), and have little to no savings on hand. Many poor Americans simply live day by day. Many do not have the money to lay out in advance that is needed to transport themselves to and from the courthouse. In the case of my county, the fact that the court provides a parking lot with free parking for jurors doesn't help those who don't have a car and can't afford public transportation. The fact that the juror will be paid $12 by check a few weeks later doesn't help either. It should also be noted that the summons I received states that requests for postponements and excusals are only accepted in writing, yet many people can't even afford the cost of a postage stamp since it's the same price as half of a double cheeseburger from a fast food “dollar menu” which will at least fill their bellies for a few hours (albeit in an unhealthy manner). In short, most Americans are in a big financial mess. The reasons why are not the point. This is something that America's court system needs to consider if it wants to improve juror turnout.
I refuse to accept the assertion that the budget doesn't exist for what I am proposing. If an imprisoned serial rapist proclaims, "My tummy hurts" (perhaps because he bought and ate too much candy from the prison commissary), the US Government somehow finds a way to come up with the money to fix it lest he sue the government and/or turn it into a “political nightmare.” We also somehow find the money to serve the aforementioned serial rapist three reasonably tasty meals each day, and serve them in recognizable form and at a pleasing temperature no less. America is a very wealthy, first-world country. I do not accept the “no money” argument for one instant.
For better or for worse, America is a capitalist society. “Money talks.” If our goal is to fill jury waiting rooms, we need to ensure that jurors will not take any financial loss whatsoever by serving. (For simplicity, I am avoiding a discussion of the wealthy who cannot reasonably claim any financial hardship). We also need to pay jurors such that they will not feel as though they are being exploited, and not feel that the work they are doing as a juror is equivalent to that of a low-skilled or entry-level worker.
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