Patagonia, Lyft join initiative giving 2M employees time off to vote

Patagonia announced this month that it is leading an effort to give 2 million employees across hundreds of companies time off to vote in the November general election.

The initiative, dubbed “Time to Vote,” includes 383 companies such as Lyft and PayPal. The companies are not endorsing specific candidates or parties. Participating companies also help ensure employees are registered to vote.

“There’s an adage, ‘the world is run by those who show up,’” Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia, said in a statement. “Only about 60 percent of Americans vote, despite billions of dollars spent trying to get people to the polls. … No worker should have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting, and it is on all of us as responsible business leaders to contribute to the culture shift needed to increase voter participation in our elections.”

According to the U.S. Census, 53 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2016.