Twitter Makes Election Day a U.S. Paid Holiday

Election day is now a holiday, at least according to Twitter. The social media giant has given its employees Election Day off and is offering global employees paid time off to vote.

Election Day in the U.S. falls on a Tuesday in November which has made it difficult for many people to get to the ballot to vote because of having to work.

“Given the importance of voting, going forward all national election voting days that take place on a weekday will be a paid day off. Since the U.S. presidential election falls on a work day (November 3), we will plan to close all U.S. offices on that day,” the company told employees in an internal memo shared with CNBC.

“For all other elections, if you do not have enough time outside of working hours to vote or your country doesn’t already have a process in place to address this, you should take the time you need to do so and you will be compensated for the time off,” the memo also said.

International employees will also have the opportunity to take paid time off to vote in their respective elections, according to the memo.

The company said that employees who are responsible for election-related functions, such as security of its service, will still have to report to work those days.

The U.S. has among the lowest voter turnout in the developed world. Hopefully more companies follow Twitter’s move.

It was Patagonia that led the way when it offered paid time off on Election Day back in 2016.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.