How much you get paid for jury duty in NSW.

How the NSW jury pay calculator counts your days

The calculator runs two counters, because NSW and federal law count different days. The court rate steps up on the 11th day of the trial. Employer make-up pay under the National Employment Standards (NES) stops after the 10th day you are away from work. For a full-time worker on a Monday to Friday trial the two line up; for a part-timer they do not.

Tick the days you normally work and pick the weekday the trial starts. A part-timer on Monday to Wednesday who sits on a 15-day trial is away from work on 9 days, so all 9 fall inside the NES 10, while the court pays all 15 trial days. Enter your base hourly rate without loadings, because make-up pay is worked out on base pay.

NSW jury pay rates for 2026

The NSW Sheriff pays an attendance allowance for each day you attend, at rates fixed by Schedule 1 of the Jury Regulation 2022. The rate turns on two things: which day of the trial it is, and whether you work.

Effective 28 July 2025 (Sheriff's Office). Travel and lunch are paid on top.

Selected jurors are given one meal a day by the court. Bring your own lunch instead and you can claim $6.95 for each day the jury is released for lunch. Payments go out weekly by electronic funds transfer.

The Sheriff says plainly that the allowance "is not intended to substitute or be equal to your normal wage or salary payment". Nothing is paid if you ask to be excused on your summons day, if you attend and then successfully apply to be excused (Jury Act s 72(1A)), or if you do not give the Sheriff the employment and income details it asks for (Regulation s 8(2)).

NSW jury travel allowance by distance

You are paid 2 travel allowances for each day you attend, one for each direction (Regulation s 7(1)(b)). A leg of 14 km or less pays a flat $4.35. Beyond 14 km and under 100 km it is 30.7 cents a km. From 100 km the leg is capped at $30.70.

Computed from Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Regulation, rounded to the cent on each leg.

The Sheriff measures from your postcode to the courthouse; the Regulation measures from your place of residence on the jury roll. Travel and lunch are expense allowances, so they are not taken off NES make-up pay and they stay off your tax return.

Who gets $247.40 from day 11

From the 11th trial day, by which point NES make-up pay has usually run out, the NSW rate splits by employment status.

• Employed full-time or part-time: $247.40 a day.
• Self-employed or an independent contractor: $247.40 a day, once you give the Sheriff documents confirming your self-employment.
• Not employed: $106.30 a day for the whole trial.
• Casual: the Sheriff says casuals "are not entitled to the 'employed' allowance" and pays $106.30. Yet the Regulation's definition of an employed person (s 3) includes a casual employee. Which governs has not been settled, so the calculator uses the Sheriff's rate and shows what the Regulation's reading would add.
• NSW public servant: no jury payment. Your agency keeps paying your salary.

What your employer must pay in NSW

The federal floor applies in NSW as it does everywhere. A full-time or part-time employee is paid for the first 10 days away from work for jury duty, at base pay for the ordinary hours they would have worked. Your employer can ask for evidence of the court payment and then pay only the gap, base pay minus the attendance allowance, leaving travel and lunch out of the sum. Asked and not provided, the evidence rule means nothing is owed for those 10 days. Casuals get no NES jury pay. The national rules are set out in community service and jury duty leave.

After the 10th day away, the NES stops and NSW law adds no wage duty of its own: neither the Jury Act 1977 nor the Regulation requires an employer to keep paying. The Sheriff notes that many large firms continue to pay wages during jury service, so check your award, enterprise agreement or contract.

Keep it or hand it over: the allowance and your wage

NSW does not let an employed juror collect a full wage and the attendance allowance for the same day. Under Regulation s 7(2) you are entitled to the allowance only if you must pay it to your employer, or your income is reduced because of jury service.

• Employer pays your full wage and asks for the allowance: you hand it over (s 7(2)(a)), ending up with your normal wage plus travel and lunch.
• Employer pays NES make-up pay: your income drops by the court payment, so you keep the allowance (s 7(2)(b)).
• Employer pays nothing, as for a casual, or from day 11 with no award top-up: your income drops and you keep the allowance.
• Employer pays your full wage and does not ask: your income has not dropped, so the allowance is not payable. The calculator never adds it on top of a full wage.

Where your income falls only partly, s 7(3) reduces the allowance "by an amount proportional to the amount by which the person's income is reduced". The Sheriff does not publish how it applies that, so the calculator notes it rather than modelling it.

Tax follows the money. Attendance fees you keep are "other income" on your return. Fees you paid to your employer because you also got your normal pay are left out, and travel and meal allowances go nowhere on the return.

What your employer cannot do in NSW

Employers must release any employee summoned for jury service. The Jury Act 1977 then limits how they treat you.

• No forcing you to use annual leave, sick leave or other leave (s 69A(1)). The Sheriff says that includes the day you go to court for your summons. You may still ask to use leave yourself (s 69A(2)).
• No requiring work on a day you serve, and no extra hours to make up lost time (s 69A(3)). Your employer can call you in between 9 am and 6 pm on a weekday the jury is not required (s 69A(4)).
• No dismissing you, injuring you in your employment or altering your position to your prejudice because you were summoned, and no threatening to (s 69(1), (7)).

These protections cover full-time and part-time staff, and casuals who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months on an unbroken, regular and systematic basis (s 69(10), from the Jury Amendment Act 2024). A casual with 8 months' service still gets the court allowance, but not the s 69 protection.

Breaching s 69 can cost a corporation $22,000 and an individual $5,500 (or 12 months' imprisonment), and a court can order the employer to reimburse lost wages and reinstate you (s 69(3)). Breaching s 69A carries 20 penalty units.

NSW jury pay worked examples

All four use the rates in force in 2026.

Related calculators and guides

• Community service and jury duty leave, the NES rules that apply in every state.
• Jury duty pay in Queensland, a different court scale, stepping up after the 20th weekday.
• Jury duty payment in WA, where the employer pays full wages instead.
• NSW leave calculator, long service leave and public holidays in NSW.
• Casual loading calculator, for the rate a casual gives up on jury days.

Sources

• NSW Sheriff's Office, Payment for jury service, last updated 20 August 2025, retrieved 6 October 2026.
• NSW Sheriff's Office, What employers and employees need to know, last updated 25 November 2025, retrieved 6 October 2026.
• Jury Regulation 2022 (NSW), version current from 10 March 2025, retrieved 6 October 2026 (due for staged repeal on 1 September 2027).
• Jury Act 1977 (NSW), in-force version published 28 March 2026, retrieved 7 October 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Jury duty, updated 10 August 2026, retrieved 6 October 2026.
• ATO, myTax 2026 Other income, updated 19 August 2026, retrieved 7 October 2026.

Published 7 October 2026. Checked against these sources on 7 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.