Employee Voting Leave

Here’s a quick reminder from Deborah Shapiro, of Deborah A. Shapiro, LLC, regarding employee voting leave. Thanks to Deborah for this great piece of info, and Stacy Robin of The Degania Group for passing it along.

“As Election Day approaches, please be aware that New York State law requires you to provide your employees with sufficient time to vote.

Employees are entitled to “voting leave” if:

-they are registered voters; and
-they do not have at least 4 consecutive hours in which to vote, either between the time the polls open and the start of their work day or between the end of their work day and the time the polls close.

These employees are entitled to take up to 2 hours of paid leave. They also may take an additional 2 hours of unpaid leave, if necessary, to have 4 consecutive hours off while the polls are open (but employees who are exempt from the overtime laws must not be docked for this time).

If employees wish to take voting leave, they must provide you with notice at least 2 days, but not more than 10 days, before Election Day.  You are permitted to designate whether an employee takes his/her voting leave at the start or the end of the work day.”