It cannot be stressed enough that juries need to reflect our communities in order to function as a fair and accurate representation of justice from our peers. Unfortunately, low-income Americans are frequently handed the short end of the stick when providing service, stuck with the choice to either (1) participate and lose out on necessary wages; or (2) be excluded from the jury process because they fit into the financial hardship exemption.
In 2020, according to data compiled by Nielsen, the American Payroll Association, CareerBuilder, and the NEFE, between 50 percent and 78 percent of employees earn just enough to pay their bills each month. So, while jury duty is simply inconvenient to some Americans, those who are self-employed, hold multiple part-time jobs, or are dependent on tips as part of their compensation, potential loss of income is critical and they do whatever they can to avoid serving on a jury. The public opinion on juries seems to reflect this class divide, with higher earners seeing it as a privilege and honor, while some low-income earners see it as a burden and waste of time.
Right now, jurors in Texas are faced with statutory punitive measures that can vary from $100 to $500 if they fail to attend court or file a false claim of exemption. Yet, Texas jurors only receive $6/day and a $3 off parking voucher for their trouble. And parking near the court costs about $10. So, in essence, a Texan juror would be paying to be on the jury, and that is excluding other necessary expenses going into serving – such as gas, childcare, and lost wages. Talk about using the stick instead of the carrot...
If we truly want to maintain the integrity of our legal system, we need to adapt to these very serious issues that keep our juries unrepresentative of our peers. In 2016, jurors in King County, Seattle brought forth a class action suit to require that jurors at least get paid minimum wage if they are not compensated by their employer. Unfortunately, they lost. And so, the problem remains that there is a disproportional exclusion of the poor serving on juries with no relief in sight.
The reason this hasn’t been solved is the same reason that voter suppression exists – to deprive the working class of their voices. Very few governmental entities have lifted a hand to remedy this issue. For example, San Francisco has started pilot programs like “Be the Jury” that raises juror pay from $15 to $100/day if they meet certain financial conditions. But San Francisco is just one city. To see systemic change, we all need to make major shifts in our priorities.
In a democracy, civic participation should be held as the number one priority. We have strayed far from that view, taxpayer dollars now going towards building walls and maintaining the military industrial complex for the small price tag of $777.7 billion. The obvious solution would be a reapportionment of the budget to aid citizens in lessening the burden of participation. But I don’t believe that things will change because the people who would benefit the most from the change are too busy working to dive into democratic reform on their free time.
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