Cheddar spoke with several large U.S. companies that are either closing for Election Day or offering paid time off to employees so they have the time and flexibility to vote.
For some, this is the first time they've offered this kind of benefit, while others are refining their practices after taking them for a test-run in 2016. And it is not just about getting time off to vote: some companies have also added PTO for nonpartisan poll workers.
Leading this effort is Time To Vote, a coalition of large corporations that are pledging to provide their employees time and accommodation to vote on Election Day. Patagonia, PayPal and Levi's launched the campaign and have since gotten more than 1,700 companies to commit.
In this interview, we spoke with J.J. Huggins, a longtime employee of Patagonia who now handles public relations, about how it's leading by example, with a full nationwide shutdown of stores on Election Day, as well as offering accommodations for poll workers.
What is Patagonia's plan for voting day? How did it come up with this particular approach?
We will be closed on Election Day November 3. We will be providing up to four additional paid days off for our employees who are hired to be poll workers. That's specific to those working for their local election office as nonpartisan poll workers. If you want to go work on a campaign, you have to use your own vacation time for that just because of FEC rules and so forth.
Read more: Time Off to Vote: Levi's
How does this compare with Patagonia's policies in past elections?
We've been doing the paid day off on Election Day for U.S. employees since 2016. That was the first year where our CEO at the time decided to give all employees the day off on Election Day so that nobody would have to choose between getting to work on time, working the full day, and also getting to the polls.
We are a retail-based company. We have stores all over the country. A lot of folks get paid by the hour. They might be single parents. They might have a fairly long commute, and those people tend to have the most challenges in terms of voting in-person on Election Day.
With companies offering a range of official election policies, do you recommend one approach in particular for other companies?
In my opinion, as someone who does a lot of work on this and someone who's been talking to a lot of companies, my recommendation would be a minimum of three hours paid time off on or before Election Day. I'm saying on or before because with COVID it's probably more important to have that time off before Election Day.
What role can the government play in helping companies change their policies to make voting easier for employees?
We have learned that employees have a lot of trust in their corporate leaders. When your boss asks you to do something and tells you something is important, you are likely to listen. At Patagonia, we've learned that through Time to Vote. CEOs have an incredible amount of power that they should feel an obligation to use to help their employees. They can use that power by providing employees with some inspiration to vote, and to provide information on when, where, how they can vote.
Does Patagonia expect to change its policies for future elections?
I don't know if we'll change any policies, but we're learning a lot about voting-by-mail and how to help our employees with that, to give them time to learn all the rules with that.
Read more: Time Off to Vote: Away
What role can the government play in helping companies change their policies to make voting easier for employees?
We've worked with Congressman Matt Cartwright. He's working on legislation to mandate federally a certain number of paid hours off on Election Day. We believe that would be incredibly helpful for companies. Right now, the rules around paid time off on Election Day vary state-by-state. Some states don't have any requirements. Some states do have rules for employers. If there was an equal playing field for all the states that all companies could abide by, that would be really helpful.
Note: Minor edits were made for clarity.
