Texas Employer Voting Laws

Election day is tomorrow.  While many of your employees have already voted during early voting, many have not.  What are the rules?

1. Voting must be allowed.
2. Voting time is ordinarily paid.  A non-exempt employee is allowed two hours of paid voting time, unless there are two consecutive hours of voting time outside their normal work schedule.  Since voting hours are from 7am-7pm, if an employee is scheduled to not begin work until 9 am, or will be finished no later than 5 pm, they do not have to be paid for their voting time.  If you do pay an employee for their voting time, these hours count towards their mandatory overtime for the week (but not optional overtime).  For exempt employees, do not deduct their voting time from their pay.  You can deduct this time off from their paid time off balances however.
3. Finally, you cannot retaliate against an employee for voting or voting for or against a particular candidate or measure. 
4. If you decide to issue a company-wide email regarding any of these issues, it might also be a good idea to remind your employees that regardless of the election’s outcome, you expect them to remain professional and courteous to their co-workers.

Be safe and stay the course. And of course, let us know if we can help.

Thanks, Jack, Elizabeth and Jim