You have to work on election day: your two hours

The two paid hours, and when you get them

This is the part to know before any other. **Article 5.1(17) of Puerto Rico's Electoral Code** (Act 58-2020) recognizes the right of **every working elector, whether a public or private-sector employee**, who must work on a Voting day and **cannot exercise their right to vote outside working hours**, to be given the opportunity of **mail voting** or of voting at an **early Voting Center operating outside their working hours**.

And then comes the concrete obligation on the employer. When, **upon expiry of the deadlines** set by the State Elections Commission for requesting those early voting methods, the worker **could not anticipate the conflict** between their shift and the voting hours, **the employer shall be required to grant them a maximum of two (2) paid hours to go vote during working hours**.

The Department of Labor summarizes it this way in its **Secretary's Opinion No. 2020-04**: every employee who must work on a voting day is entitled to **a maximum of two paid hours** to go vote during working hours, **when they could not vote early and the conflict** between their shift and voting hours **could not be anticipated**.

And it adds the detail that heads off the most common argument: **that special leave is additional to and separate from any other leave** you are entitled to, vacation, for instance. They do not deduct it from your days; it is leave with its own name.

The flip side is a planning duty the Opinion places on the employer: **all employers operating that day** must **set the schedules and shifts** of employees who have not voted early, so they can get to the voting centers. The two hours are the remedy when that arrangement was not possible, not the first option.

Denying your vote is a felony, not an administrative slip

The Opinion is explicit about the right's weight: **the fundamental right to vote has supremacy over any other right or particular interest** seeking to prevent you from voting. That framing comes from **Section 2 of Article II of the Constitution of Puerto Rico**, which requires laws to protect the citizen **against all coercion in the exercise of the electoral prerogative**.

Two consequences follow, and they are not symbolic.

**The civil one:** if a worker's right is curtailed, they **have standing to bring or pursue legal action against their employer before the Court of First Instance**.

**The criminal one, and it is the heavy one:** the Electoral Code provides that **any employer or representative who refuses to allow a worker or employee qualified to vote to exercise that right shall incur a felony**, punishable by **imprisonment of one (1) to three (3) years**, or a **fine of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000)**, or **both penalties** at the court's discretion. The Opinion places it in **Article 12.4** of the Code.

And on time to act: the Opinion notes that **criminal action for electoral offenses classified as felonies prescribes in five (5) years**, under Article 12.26. Five years is a wide margin, but the evidence is built the same day: keep your shift record, any written exchange, and the name of whoever refused.

The day is a holiday, but your store can still open

Here is the confusion that repeats every cycle. **Article 9.3 of the Electoral Code decrees that General Election day is a holiday in Puerto Rico**. Many people conclude their employer cannot open, or that if it opens they get double pay. Neither follows.

The Opinion explains it plainly: **except for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Puerto Rico legislation does not limit or prohibit private-sector businesses from opening on days considered holidays**, nor does it establish which such days private companies are required to observe.

Holidays, the Opinion says, **may be granted at the employer's discretion as part of its benefits policy, or may be agreed** in a collective bargaining agreement or an individual employment contract. Therefore, **opening on General Election day is at the employer's discretion**, like any other regular day, with the exception that it **must respect its employees' fundamental right to vote**.

There is an added limit that does not depend on the employer and does close some doors: **Article 12.22** of the Electoral Code makes it a **misdemeanor** to open or operate commercial establishments **for the dispensing, sale, traffic or free consumption of alcoholic beverages from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.**, except for establishments in **tourist-interest zones**, among others the statute lists. If you work at a bar, restaurant or corner store, that is the rule governing your hours that day.

How that day is paid: the short answer is "normally"

**If the employer operates:** hours worked by employees **are paid at straight time**, unless those hours **exceed the maximum daily or weekly workday**, or **fall on the employee's day of rest**. That is, ordinary compensation applies, unless overtime is worked as defined by **Act 379 of 1948**, the Opinion cites its **Article 4** (29 L.P.R.A. sec. 273).

Put another way: the day being a holiday under the Electoral Code **does not make it a double-pay day**. The premium comes from the workday or the day of rest, not from the holiday.

**If the employer does not operate**, the answer changes with your classification, and this is the part that surprises most:

A **non-exempt employee** need **not be compensated** by the employer (because non-exempt employees are paid for hours worked) **unless a collective agreement, the individual employment contract or the employer's holiday policy recognizes General Election day as a paid holiday**. That is the question to put to HR before the day, in writing.

An **exempt employee**, by contrast, **must be compensated for the full workweek even if they do not work that day**, because exempt employees are paid in full for each week in which they perform any work, regardless of hours. The Opinion grounds this in the fact that their salary **is based on an agreed fixed wage not subject to reductions for variations in the quantity or quality of work**.

What here is permanent and what belonged to that year

It is worth being transparent about the source, because how much you can lean on each fact depends on it. **Secretary's Opinion No. 2020-04** was issued on **October 28, 2020**, ahead of that year's General Elections, and is signed by the then Secretary of Labor. It was issued under the Secretary's authority to study protective labor legislation and ensure its compliance, under **Act No. 15 of April 14, 1931**, the DTRH's Organic Act.

**What is permanent** is what comes from the statute and not the calendar: the right to two paid hours under Article 5.1(17), the felony under 12.4 and its five-year prescription under 12.26, the holiday under 9.3, the alcoholic beverage restriction under 12.22, and the pay rule of Article 4 of Act 379. That is what this guide publishes as the rule.

**What belonged to that cycle** and should not be taken as current: that election's date, the **COVID-19 curfew** the Opinion mentions via Administrative Bulletin OE-2020-077, and the **voting center hours** (which that time ran 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) because those hours were set by the State Elections Commission's **2020 General Elections and General Canvass Regulation**, and each cycle has its own.

So before each election, two things to confirm with the State Elections Commission: **that cycle's voting hours** and **the deadlines for requesting mail or early voting**. Those deadlines are precisely the ones whose expiry, without your having been able to anticipate the conflict, triggers your two paid hours.