Bloomberg: Apple Inc. told U.S. employees they can take as many as four hours off with pay on Election Day to vote or volunteer at a polling place.The policy applies to retail employees and hourly workers and is similar to moves made by other companies, including Twitter Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. It was announced in a memo to Apple employees seen by Bloomberg News. Election Day is Nov. 3.“For retail team members and hourly workers across the company, if you’re scheduled to work this Election Day, we’ll be providing up to four hours of paid time off if you need it to get to the polls,” Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and people, told staff. “If they choose, our teams can also use this time to volunteer as an election worker at one of your local polling stations.”

Great idea but why isn’t this a nationwide law as it is in some third world countries? Relying on corporate goodwill means that these essential civic protections are unevenly distributed across the working population, leaving millions of hourly laborers without the necessary flexibility to participate in the democratic process. It is certainly encouraging to see the private sector step up, with paid voting leave now offered by everyone from multinational retail chains to digital studios programming crypto casino games and Web3 interfaces. However, a sweeping federal mandate would permanently ensure that every single voter, regardless of their employer’s specific HR policies or industry sector, has the guaranteed, legally protected time they need to reach the ballot box.