Chicago employers help get out the vote
Paid time off to cast a ballot or work polls. Bans on Election Day meetings.
The owners of Evanston’s Prairie Moon restaurant want to serve diners on ElectionDay.
They also want to make sure that won’t keep any of their 15 employees from casting a ballot.
All management employeeshave agreed to vote early or by mail so they can cover for anyone who needs extra time to voteNov. 3. Employees will be paid for anywork missed, said co- owner Robert Strom.
“We’re all coming in that day and giving them any time needed to follow through on the process,” he said. ‘We’ve always been politically active, but this is extremely important to us.”
The idea of giving employees paid time off to vote isn’t new: 44% of employers offered the benefit in 2018, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Some states require it. In Illinois, employees are entitled to two hours of paid time off if their shift starts less than two hours after polls open and ends less than two hours before polls close.
Still, a growing number of companies in Chicago and elsewhere say they are actively encouraging workers to vote and offering them more time to do so if needed. More than 730 companies nationwide have signed on to ElectionDay.org, which asks companies to commit to providing employees some form of paid time off to vote.
That’s twice the number of companies that had signed up at the start of 2020, said Nora Gilbert,
“We believe it’s part of our duty, and a privilege, to help educate our employees to the best of our ability to know their rights and what is available to them.” — Sarah Kittel, Ferrara’s head of corporate affairs
director of partnerships at Vote.org, a not-for-profit thatworks to increase voter turnout and is one of several groups asking companies to make voting pledges.
Another group, Time To Vote, counted 37 Illinois companies that give employees time to vote, information on how to register and cast a ballot, or both, includingBakerTilly, Alight Solutions and Abbott, which is giving employees up to four hours of paid time off to vote. Others are taking steps, particularly when it comes to keeping employees informed, but are not on either list.
Several companies said their voting initiatives are nonpartisan and meant to ensure employees can participate despite uncertainty about how the pandemic will affect Election Day. Concerns about shortages of poll workers have some predicting longer lines, while people trying to avoid crowds may be figuring out howto vote early or by mail for the first time.
Some companies have made Election Day a company holiday, including Salesforce andTwitter, both of which have a Chicago office. Ford, which has two Chicago-area plants, has been shutting down factories and giving workers the day off since 2000.
Other employers that aren’t willing or able to close on ElectionDay say they are focusing on providing resources to make sure employees know their options, including casting ballots early or by mail, and howto register to vote.
For the first time, Chicago-based Ferrara Candy Co. is sharing information on voting in multiple languages and designated some employees as ambassadors who can help their co-workers with registration.
“We believe it’s part of our duty, and a privilege, to help educate our employees to the best of our ability to know their rights and what is available to them,” said Sarah Kittel, Ferrara’s head of corporate affairs.
The candy-maker will give employees paid time off to work the polls as long as they notify a manager two weeks in advance to help with scheduling. Employees are generally able to vote before or after their shifts, but the company is encouraging them to tell a manager if they may need additional time so the company can make sure all shifts are covered.
Employees will be given time to vote if needed, and whether they will be paid for that time depends on local laws.
Ferrara considered making Election Day a paid day off, but shutting downmanufacturing in a way that keeps sugar fromcrystallizing and gunking up the pipes isn’t as simple as flipping a switch.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is when you shut down for a day, you shut down for three days,” Kittel said.
At Rosemont-based Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care, where most of the 3,500 employees nationwide care for patients, managers will work with employees so people who need to leave early, arrive late or vote midday can do so, communications director Nicole McCann-Davis said in an email. Employees will be paid for that time.
It’s the first year Seasons has had a formal policy around making time to vote.
Rush University Medical Center said it believes polls open early enough to let employees vote before
work, but won’t require employees use paid time off if they need a little extra time this year.
The hospital is also taking a more active approach to getting out the vote this year and joining an initiative called VotER, in which physicians and medical providers wear badges with a QR code patients can scan to go to a website with information on registering to vote. The goal is to make conversations about voting part of everyday interactions with patients, said Kristin Obiakor, a fourthyear medical student who has been leading voter registration initiatives at Rush.
Other companies that say they will give employees workingNov. 3 paid time off to vote if needed include Target, Virgin Hotels, restaurant chain Nando’s and Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee. Target and Intelligentsia have offered paid time during past elections.
Workers at Virgin Hotels in Chicago, Nashville and Dallas can use up to four paid hours to vote early as well as on Election Day. Nando’s, which set up voter registration stations in Chicago and Washington, D.C., restaurants, also plans to help employees arrange transportation on Election Day, if needed, said John Fisher, CEO of Nando’s USA.
Some employers that have offered time off during past elections are giving employees more flexibility to allow for longer lines Nov. 3 or greater-than-usual interest in early voting as people try to avoid crowds during the pandemic.
Illinois is on track to see a record number of people vote by mail, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. More than 1 million people applied to vote by mail as of late August. Just 430,000 ballots were cast bymail in 2018.
The board is encouraging people to vote early or by mail to limit lines on Election Day. Some local election authorities have expressed concerns about recruiting enough election judges, who tend to be retirees and may be more likely to skip this year’s election due to concerns about COVID-19, said spokesmanMatt Dietrich.
Schaumburg-based insurance company Zurich North America typically gives employees two hours of paid time to vote. This year, Zurich isn’t setting a time limit as long as employees coordinate with their manager, said Chief Legal Officer Laura Lazarczyk.
Public relations firm Edelman gave all employees four hours of paid time they can use to vote any time on or before Nov. 3 instead of starting the work day four hours late on Election Day, as the firm did in 2016 and 2018, U.S. CEORussell Dubner said.
The company will avoid holding internal meetings on ElectionDay “asmuchas humanly possible” so people can vote withoutworrying about missing anything atwork, he said.
Chicago- based consumer products sales and marketing agency C.A. Fortune also asked clients to avoid scheduling meetings on Election Day so employees can have as much time as needed to vote, said Chief People Officer Michelle Armer.
C.A. Fortune and Edelman started giving employees civic action days this year, which some are using to work the polls, and Target expanded the pool of employees who can receive paid time off to work the polls.