The amount and method of jurors’ compensation was established back when a new house cost an average of $12,400, Kraft Cheese slices were 32 cents a pack, and the minimum wage was $1.

A New Ringgold man is on a mission to change that, and on Wednesday asked Schuylkill County commissioners to help him in his quest.

The Rev. Dr. Roger L. Thomas said jurors’ compensation was set in 1959 at $1 an hour.

“Jurors therefore get paid $9 a day,” he said. The county pays about $49,000 a year from the general fund to pay them, he said.

Based on a wage of $9.50 an hour, a nine-hour shift would come to $85.50 a day, he said, inflicting a $76 daily loss to the juror.

Further, the $1 an hour compensation provides nothing to the juror’s employer, who is deprived of an employee on jury duty, he said.

The solution, Thomas said, is for the state Legislature to adopt a 2007 proposal drafted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Pennsylvania Commission for Racial, Gender and Ethnic Fairness following a 2003 examination of jury function.

Under the proposal, the Internal Revenue Service and the state Department of Revenue would pay the entire cost of compensating jurors and their employers as a tax credit or a tax deduction.

“The juror is paid their usual daily wage, which the employer then discharges as an ‘employee-related expense.’ Jury service becomes a ‘pass-through expense’ which both the IRS and our Department of Revenue have acknowledged that they owe. Pennsylvania would suffer ‘no substantial economic impact.’ What is now a substantial unfunded mandate would become an inconsequential reduction of tax revenue,” he said.

The current small stipend can impact a defendant’s right to a fair trial, he said.

“Low compensation means low-income residents cannot serve on juries. They can’t afford to take a day off, and their employer won’t compensate them for time off. They can’t afford child care; they even risk losing their jobs if they were to take time off to serve on a jury. Wage earners in the lower strata of society cannot take a day off work in exchange for a $9 jury fee.”

The proposal is poised to be introduced in the General Assembly, he said.

Thomas asked commissioners to help by sending letters of support to legislators or by presenting a written proposal to the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

“Schuylkill County will save $49,000 in unfunded mandates,” Thomas said.

Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. asked Thomas to see him after the meeting to further discuss the matter.