Kentucky juror pay hasn’t changed since 1978. Will lawmakers finally increase it?

For Kentuckians called to jury duty, there’s a good chance they’ll spend more on lunch and parking than they’ll earn for a day of service.

Juror compensation in Kentucky is $5 per day, plus an additional $7.50 per day for “expenses incurred,” bringing total pay for the day to $12.50 — a figure that has been unchanged since 1978.

“Jury service is a public, a civil service, that we ask our citizens to do if you’re a registered voter, a property taxpayer ... or (have a) driver’s license.” Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, said at a committee meeting Wednesday morning.

“If you’re on one of those three lists, you’re eligible to be a juror, but we don’t pay them enough, and it hasn’t been changed.”

Several bills filed by lawmakers this legislative session seek to do just that:

• Senate Bill 22, sponsored by Westerfield, would boost daily juror pay to $125. The bill was heard in the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee, but did not receive a vote Wednesday.
• House Bill 176 from Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, would double daily pay to $25. The bill unanimously passed the House Judiciary Committee in January, but it was reassigned to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee two days later. It has remained there without further action.
  
  
• House Bill 104, sponsored by Rep. Deanna Frazier Gordon, R-Richmond, would raise juror pay to $50. It has not received a committee assignment.

Westerfield’s bill would cost about $18 million annually, and Flannery’s would be $3.6 million.

Juror pay varies dramatically across state state lines and even from county to county in some states.

Indiana starts impaneled jurors at $80. Tennessee has a minimum flat rate of $11, though counties are allowed to pay more. Federal jurors start at $50 per day.

An April 2022 study from the National Center for State Courts found the average pay for the first day of jury service is $16.61 — far below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

Adequate pay is “a key driver of ensuring that inequities do not impact participation,” the report said. “Particularly for those already struggling with minimum wage positions, ensuring adequate compensation is crucial to their effective participation in the enterprise.”

After the report, six states — Indiana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia — increased their rates in 2023, the National Center for State Courts said.

Of those, only Texas paid jurors less than Kentucky. At the time, Texas started jurors at $6 for the first day and $40 for subsequent days; those amounts increased to $20 and $58, respectively.

Westerfield, an attorney, told the committee a lot is asked of people who serve as jurors. They’re peppered with questions by attorneys and judges, and they have to make weighty decisions about the money and liberty of others.

“Every judge I know, every prosecutor I know, every defense attorney I know, they all apologize to jurors for the pay so that they’re not tagged for having been the ones that make them earn their five bucks,” he said.

“I think it’s pitifully low.”

Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, R-Lexington, recounted being a stay-at-home mom to two kids under five when she had to report for jury duty. For three days, she paid a babysitter $15 per hour while she went to court.

“I was grateful to serve. There was a part of me that said I could do this, because many people can’t,” she said.

“That was just me paying out the expenses to make it work, not to mention someone working a minimum wage job or someone who did not have that kind of capacity to pay. We’re really put a position where, it is an honor to serve and to provide that accountability, and I was happy to do it, but I think this is much needed.”

Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said juries are a “fundamentally critical part of our criminal justice system.”

“They are actually putting themselves in a situation where they’re engaging in something fundamental to our system, yet takes them out of their mode of living each day that they count on going forward,” Neal, an attorney, said.

“I think we ought to strengthen this part of the system, or at least ... let them understand that we are cognizant of the challenges they have in dealing with this.”

Neal pointed out the issue of juror pay has come up in past General Assembly sessions, but lawmakers “did not properly respond.”

Neal introduced a bill in 2018 that would have raised total juror compensation to $40 daily. A 2023 bill from Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville and an attorney, would have increased pay to $50. Neither got as much as committee hearings.

Senate Appropriations and Revenue Chair Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, said the courts have never named juror pay as one of the top budget priorities for the judicial branch.

McDaniel said if juror pay is addressed, it will most likely be done as a part of the ongoing budget process.

This story was originally published February 22, 2024 at 7:00 AM.

Tessa Duvall

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-334-0430

Tessa has been the Herald-Leader’s Politics and Public Affairs Editor since March 2024, after acting as Frankfort Bureau Chief since joining the paper in August 2022. A native of Bowling Green and a graduate of Western Kentucky University, Tessa has also reported in Texas, Florida and Louisville, where she covered education, criminal justice and policing.