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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Ronald G. Waters |
  
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Waters demands fair pay for a juror's day
HARRISBURG, June 4 -- State Rep. Ronald G. Waters, D-Phila./Delaware, recently testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts at a public hearing on jury compensation.
The hearing focused on Waters' legislation, H.B. 601, which would increase jurors' pay in Pennsylvania to $40 for each day in any calendar year a juror is required to report for service. Currently, jurors receive $9 a day for the first three days of jury duty, and $25 per day for each day thereafter.
"If you do the math, right now a person holding a full-time job with a $7.15 hourly wage working 40 hours a week makes roughly $285 a week," Waters said. "That same person, if picked to serve on a jury for the same amount of time -- one week -- would only receive $77.
"This unrealistic compensation has gone on too long in Pennsylvania," he said. "Is it any wonder why so many people try to get excused from jury duty?"
At the hearing, Waters thanked subcommittee Chairman Don Walko, D-Allegheny, for the opportunity to present his testimony and for considering improvements to the current jury compensation law.
"Our citizens who serve as jurors in our courts deserve adequate compensation," Waters said. "The existing level of compensation is grossly insufficient, and I would hope everyone on the committee is in agreement that it is high time that jury duty compensation is adjusted to reflect the financial reality of 2008 rather than the 1940s."
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