Fair workweek and predictive scheduling laws are local ordinances, plus one statewide law in Oregon, that require certain employers, mostly in retail, food service, and hospitality, to give hourly workers advance notice of their schedules, pay extra when they change those schedules at the last minute, and offer available shifts to current staff before hiring anyone new. No federal law does this yet. Whether you are covered depends almost entirely on the city, county, or state where you work.
Where These Laws Apply
Oregon is the only state with a statewide predictive scheduling law. Everywhere else these protections exist, they were passed at the city or county level, which makes coverage patchy and hyperlocal. Active fair workweek ordinances are on the books in several California cities, two Illinois cities, and one city each in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Most of these laws took effect between 2015 and 2023.
At the federal level, the Schedules That Work Act has been introduced in Congress several times without ever advancing past committee. The most recent version was introduced in December 2025 as H.R.6786 in the 119th Congress and remains pending with no floor vote scheduled.1Congress.gov. H.R.6786 – 119th Congress (2025-2026): Schedules That Work Act Until something passes, your rights depend on where you work.
More than a dozen states have gone the other direction and passed preemption laws that specifically block cities and counties from creating local scheduling ordinances. Most of these preemption statutes were enacted between 2015 and 2024. If you live in a preemption state and your state hasn’t passed its own scheduling law, no local government can fill the gap. Check your state first. If your state hasn’t preempted local action, check whether your city or county has an ordinance on the books; your local labor department’s website is the most reliable place to confirm.
Whether Your Job Is Covered
These laws target industries where unpredictable scheduling is most common: retail, fast food and food service, and hospitality. Some jurisdictions also reach warehouse, manufacturing, and building services work. The common thread is hourly, non-exempt workers whose income rises and falls with how many shifts they get.
Employer size matters, and the thresholds vary widely. Some larger jurisdictions only cover employers with 500 or more employees worldwide, which effectively limits coverage to major chains and franchises. Others set the bar much lower, sometimes at 56 employees globally for certain industries or 100 for others. A few use location counts instead of headcounts, covering fast food franchises with 30 or more locations nationwide regardless of how many people work at each one. If you’re not sure whether your employer meets the threshold, your local labor enforcement office can usually confirm.
If you’re in a union, read your contract. Several fair workweek laws let a collective bargaining agreement waive or modify the scheduling requirements, but only when the CBA explicitly addresses scheduling and provides comparable or better benefits. A contract that simply doesn’t mention scheduling won’t count as a waiver. If your union negotiated scheduling terms, those may replace the ordinance entirely.
Advance Notice and Good Faith Estimates
The core of every predictive scheduling law is advance notice. Most jurisdictions require employers to post the work schedule at least 14 calendar days before the first shift on it. A few started with a shorter window, sometimes 10 days, before phasing up to 14. The schedule must be posted where affected employees can see it, and many laws allow electronic distribution.
Separately, most laws require a written good faith estimate at hire. This document tells you roughly how many hours to expect each week, what days and times your shifts typically fall on, and whether you might be assigned on-call shifts. It isn’t a guaranteed schedule. It’s a baseline your employer should stay reasonably close to over time. If your actual hours consistently look nothing like the estimate, that’s a red flag worth raising with the enforcement agency.
Current employees can often request an updated good faith estimate, especially after a meaningful change in role or availability. Employers that skip the estimate entirely can face fines during a labor audit even if they’re otherwise following the scheduling rules.
Predictability Pay for Last-Minute Changes
Advance notice would mean nothing without a financial consequence for ignoring it. That consequence is predictability pay: extra money on top of your regular wages when your employer changes the schedule after the notice deadline. The amount depends on the type of change and how much notice you got.
- Added or rescheduled hours. If your employer adds time to your schedule or changes the date, time, or location of a shift after the notice deadline, you’re typically owed one additional hour of pay at your regular rate for each change.
- Reduced or canceled hours. If your employer cuts your hours or cancels a shift, you’re typically owed half your regular rate for the hours you lost.
- Very short notice. Some jurisdictions increase the premium when changes come with less than 24 hours of notice, with penalties reaching up to four hours of additional pay.
Not every change triggers a premium. Most laws carve out exceptions for changes you requested, voluntary shift swaps with coworkers, and situations the employer couldn’t reasonably have anticipated, like another employee calling in sick. The employer carries the burden of documenting these exceptions, which is why written consent matters.
Rest Between Shifts
One of the strongest worker protections in these laws addresses clopening: working a closing shift one night and an opening shift the next morning with barely time to sleep. Most jurisdictions with scheduling laws require a minimum of 10 to 11 hours of rest between the end of one shift and the start of the next.
If you consent in writing to work inside that rest window, your employer can schedule you, but they have to pay for it. The typical premium is time-and-a-half for hours worked within the rest period. One major city applies a different rule for fast food workers: a flat $100 premium per clopening shift regardless of its length. Without your written consent, the employer simply cannot schedule you inside the rest window.
Access to Open Hours and Schedule Requests
Fair workweek laws generally require employers to offer available hours to current employees before hiring new workers or bringing in temps. When a shift opens up, the employer must post it visibly or send electronic notice and give existing employees a reasonable window to claim it, often around 72 hours. The posting should include when and where the shift is, how long it lasts, and any qualifications required.
This provision addresses a common pattern: an employer keeps existing workers below full-time hours while hiring someone new to cover shifts current staff would have taken. Under these laws, you get first shot. The employer doesn’t have to give you the hours if you’re not qualified or if it would push you into overtime, but they have to ask before looking outside the team.
Many laws also give you a right to request preferred schedules or flexible arrangements. You can tell your employer you’d prefer not to work certain days, that you need a different start time for childcare, or that you want more shifts. Employers generally aren’t required to grant these requests, but they can’t punish you for making one. Some jurisdictions go further: if your request is tied to a major life event, such as a serious health condition, caregiving responsibilities, or school enrollment, the employer has to engage in a genuine back-and-forth and can only deny the request for a legitimate business reason.
Protection Against Retaliation
Every fair workweek law prohibits retaliation. Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, demote you, or take any other adverse action against you for asserting your scheduling rights. That covers declining a shift you weren’t given proper notice for, filing a complaint about missing predictability pay, requesting a schedule change, or asking questions about the law.
Proving retaliation is often hard, but enforcement agencies look at the full picture. Suspicious timing, like your hours getting slashed the week after you complained, is strong circumstantial evidence even though it isn’t required. Agencies also weigh whether similarly situated coworkers who didn’t assert their rights were treated better, whether the employer’s stated reason for the action makes sense, and whether that explanation shifted over time. If you suspect retaliation, document everything: save text messages, photograph posted schedules, and note conversations with managers about your complaints or requests.
Common Exceptions Employers Can Use
Predictive scheduling laws aren’t absolute. Most build in exceptions for situations where rigid rules would be impractical:
- Natural disasters and emergencies. If the business can’t operate because of a natural disaster, utility failure, or public transportation shutdown, the advance notice requirement is suspended. Employers still owe you for shifts you already worked, but they aren’t penalized for canceling shifts they had no way to staff.
- Employee-initiated changes. If you ask to swap shifts, pick up extra hours, or change your own schedule, the employer doesn’t owe predictability pay. The key word is “initiated.” If a manager pressures you into a swap and then frames it as your idea, that doesn’t count.
- Mutual written consent. Some laws let both parties agree to a change without triggering premium pay, as long as the agreement is documented in writing. That’s meant for genuine two-way arrangements, not a routine workaround.
Employers sometimes stretch these exceptions further than the law intends. “Another employee called in sick” is a legitimate reason to adjust a schedule, but it doesn’t automatically exempt the employer from paying the premium. The specific rules vary by jurisdiction. When in doubt, assume you’re owed the premium and let your employer explain why you aren’t.
How to File a Complaint
If your employer violates your scheduling rights, the complaint goes to your local labor enforcement agency, not the federal Department of Labor, which doesn’t enforce these laws. Most agencies accept complaints online. Expect the form to ask for your employer’s name and address, the specific shifts or changes at issue, any communications about those changes, and the predictability pay or rest periods you believe you were denied.
Many agencies attempt mediation first, giving you and your employer a chance to resolve things informally. If mediation fails, the agency opens a formal investigation that can include reviewing payroll records, auditing schedules, and interviewing witnesses. Investigations can take several months to well over a year depending on complexity. Successful claims typically result in back pay for missed predictability premiums, and some jurisdictions allow additional damages or penalties on top of what you’re owed.
Build your record before you file. Photograph every posted schedule. Save screenshots of scheduling apps. If a manager tells you a shift is canceled, get it in writing or send a follow-up text confirming what was said. Complaints backed by documentation move faster and succeed more often than those built on memory.