Running shift-based teams already involves a tricky balance between staffing needs and constantly changing employee availability. But under Fair Workweek laws, this gets even harder.

Posting shifts late, making changes just before shifts, or updating schedules based on informal conversations can mean penalties, legal disputes, or premium pay obligations. However, managers, who’re busy covering shifts and accommodating time off requests, have little time to track evolving laws. 

We discuss what Fair Workweek laws are, where they apply, and how you can stay compliant by taking some simple, practical steps. 

What is Fair Workweek? 

Fair Workweek — also called predictive scheduling — is a set of labor laws that aims to protect shift-based workers. They require employers to secure their workers by providing them:

• Stable, predictable schedules
• The opportunity to take up any additional work hours before hiring new staff
• Minimum rest periods between shifts
• The right to decline shifts in case of last-minute changes 

Without these laws, workers may be left struggling to balance work with personal commitments. As Kelsey Szamet, Employment Attorney at Kingsley Szamet Employment Lawyers, explains:

[Fair Workweek laws] give hourly employees more predictability. Many employees plan childcare, transportation, and other activities based on the schedules they are given. When these schedules are subject to constant change without proper notice or compensation, it can be a real hardship.

But for employers, these laws bring additional compliance requirements. In practice, it means managers can’t treat schedules as flexible documents. Once published, changes must follow strict rules around notice, documentation, and compensation.

Employers may not be subject to these requirements in some situations. For example, they may not apply during public emergencies (such as natural disasters) or if an employee’s work hours are cut due to disciplinary action.

Consequences of Fair Workweek violations

Kelsey says she frequently comes across cases where employers make one common mistake: They tend to treat Fair Workweek laws as “just another scheduling rule rather than a legal requirement.” But non-compliance can have major consequences: 

• On the legal side, businesses may be subject to civil actions and fines. In Oregon, for example, employers may be fined $1000 per offense, while those in Chicago may face penalties of $300 to $500 per offense. 
• There can be operational consequences too. Unpredictable schedules, last-minute shift changes, and repeated clopenings impact employees’ health and workplace satisfaction. These often result in unreliable customer service, missed tasks, and safety violations.  
• Companies may also face direct financial consequences, like premium pay rates. For instance, in Seattle, if an employee is asked to cover a shift that begins within 10 hours of their previous shift ending, the employer must pay the employee time-and-a-half (1.5 times the standard rate) for all hours worked during the second shift. 

Which locations have enacted Fair Workweek laws? 

As of March 2026, 12 locations have enacted different components of the Fair Workweek laws. See the table below to understand the requirements for businesses in your area.

Fair Workweek laws by location in the United States

Location	Good faith estimate	Fair access to available hours	Advance schedule notice	Predictability pay	Right to rest	Right to decline
Oregon	✅	❌	14 days	Time-and-a-half	10 hours	✅
Chicago, IL	✅	✅	14 days	1.25 times the regular pay	10 hours	✅
Evanston, IL	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	11 hours	✅
Berkeley, CA	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	11 hours	✅
Emeryville, CA	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	11 hours	✅
Los Angeles, CA	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	10 hours	✅
Los Angeles County, CA	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	10 hours	✅
San Francisco, CA	✅	✅	14 days	❌	❌	✅
San Jose, CA	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅
New York City, NY	❌	✅	14 days	$100	Back-to-back shifts	✅
Philadelphia, PA	✅	✅	14 days	$40	9 hours	✅
Seattle, WA	✅	✅	14 days	Time-and-a-half	10 hours	✅

What are the components of Fair Workweek laws?

Fair Workweek laws have six components: good faith estimate, fair access to available hours, advance schedule notice, predictability pay, right to rest, and right to decline.

Good faith estimate

Companies must give employees a good faith estimate — a projected schedule of work — at the time of hiring. This includes expected weekly hours, work days, and shift times. The estimate isn’t considered a contract or binding offer, but does provide employees an idea of what their schedule and income would look like. 

For example:

• In Chicago, good faith estimates must be issued for the first 90 days of a worker’s employment. They must include the average number of weekly hours expected and clarify if the employee must remain available for on-call shifts.
• Los Angeles laws go further than laws in other locations. Here, the requirements specify exactly how much an employer can deviate from the estimate without it becoming a “violation.” For example, companies may face consequences only if the number of hours worked differs from the estimate by 20% or more, or if they schedule at least one shift every week outside the shifts initially planned. 

Fair access to available hours

Employers must offer available shifts to existing, qualified employees before they hire new staff or contractors. 

For example:

• In Seattle, employers must offer any additional work hours to current employees for three days, and workers can volunteer for those hours before the employer hires new staff.
• Here too, Los Angeles laws go further. They specify that if multiple employees volunteer for additional hours, managers must allocate these hours based on a fair and equitable distribution method—and not based on personal preferences. 

Advance schedule notice

Fair Workweek laws often require employers to post work schedules at least 14 days prior to the shift. In some locations, they also specify how schedules should be communicated.

• In Emeryville, employers must post schedules — physically or digitally — in a location that is accessible and visible to all employees when they’re on site.
• In Philadelphia, companies must display schedules in places where employee notices are customarily posted.
• In most locations where Fair Workweek applies, businesses must send schedules to remote workers electronically. 

→ Read our expert-recommended best practices for scheduling employees effectively.

Predictability pay

Employers are required to pay premium rates — known as predictability pay — to employees if they make last-minute changes to the schedule. 

Predictability pay may apply when:

• Shifts are added, changed, or canceled after the schedule is posted
• An employee isn’t called in for a shift for which they’re scheduled to be on call, or are sent home early (typically by more than 15 minutes)

Right to rest

Employers must give employees a minimum gap between shifts so they have adequate time to eat and rest. 

Companies that don’t meet this requirement may need to pay additional compensation to employees. For example:

• Employers in Oregon must pay employees time-and-a-half for all hours worked during the non-compliant shift.
• Businesses in New York City must offer bonus payouts to employees who work back-to-back shifts.

→ See our tips on how to avoid clopening shifts. 

Right to decline

Employers must obtain consent from employees before making last-minute changes to work schedules and cannot retaliate against workers who decline. 

In general, retaliation includes threatening, intimidating, disciplining, discharging, demoting, suspending, harassing, or reducing the hours of an employee — especially within the first 90 days of their employment. 

5 tips for staying compliant with Fair Workweek laws

Compliance often comes down to consistent processes. Here’s how you can design your scheduling requirements around it.

1. Create disciplined scheduling habits

Treat scheduling as a structured, repeatable process. 

• Require employees to update their availability before scheduling starts.
• Fix a deadline for publishing schedules that gives managers a buffer to address last-minute change requests.

For example, if Fair Workweek requires employers to post schedules 14 days in advance, the deadline to publish schedules can be 16–18 days before the shift. 

• Implement a “review” stage after managers create a schedule and before they publish it. Managers can use this stage to make sure the schedule meets all Fair Workweek requirements.
• If you have workers in multiple locations, it may seem obvious to implement different rules for different locations based on that place’s laws. But this may not be easy to follow in practice. Jeff Patten, Co-founder of Flatiron Wines & Spirits, explains how their team handled the conflicting requirements in New York City and San Francisco: 

2. Make employee schedules easy to access

If you have just one site, you can simply tape schedules to the back of a door. But if you’re running multiple locations and shift types, the process becomes more complex.

• Define where the schedule will be posted each week.
  • If the schedule is displayed on site, post it in the same place every time. 
  • If you post it digitally, ensure employees have reliable, 24×7 access to the scheduling platform — ideally via an app. 
• Centralize scheduling in one platform — especially if you have workers at different sites.
• Always keep the latest version of the schedule clearly visible to employees. Highlight any updates made and store older versions separately.  
• Notify employees as soon as schedules are published via multiple channels — including email and push notifications. 

To notify employees on Buddy Punch, go to “Schedule” and click on an open area in the calendar to create a shift. Click on “Add shift” once you’re done, hit “Publish,” and then choose “Publish & Send.”

3. Establish rules and expectations to control shift swapping

Take an active approach to employer-initiated shift swapping. 

• Define a formal swap policy that explains when a swap triggers predictability pay. Train managers so they can identify which swaps trigger additional pay before approving requests.  
• Maintain a volunteer coverage pool of employees who are willing to pick up urgent shifts. 

On Buddy Punch, you can set shift-swapping parameters to clearly identify which employees can shift swaps without approval.

• Require signoff from more than one manager before any shift swap is approved. This distributes the burden evenly across the management team.
• Jeff Patten recommends making schedule stability a management performance metric.

4. Apply pay rate premiums automatically for shift changes

Avoid situations that leave managers struggling to calculate predictability pay. 

• Ruth Young-Loaeza, Founder and CEO of NEET®Sheets, recommends “automat(ing) predictability pay calculations from day one…Removing that calculation from human hands helps eliminate the single biggest compliance gap I see operators fall into.”
• But she advises combining automation with regular internal audits. “Go through your change logs, notice records and pay calculations before anyone else does, because the labor board absolutely will.” 

Khris Steven, Founder at KhrisDigital, reiterates the importance of human oversight when using software.

On Buddy Punch, you can create custom pay rates based on Fair Workweek laws.

5. Document all changes made to the schedule 

Schedule changes made based on verbal agreements, phone conversations, and text messages can put you at risk during audits. 

• For each schedule change, record:
  • Who initiated the change
  • What was changed — for example, shift time or date
  • When it was changed
  • Why the change was needed
• Flag changes made after the advance notice deadline so you can easily identify when predictability pay goes into effect and review for any compliance risks.
• Record all versions of a schedule, including the original one, every change made, and the final version.

Buddy Punch’s schedule log feature allows you to review all changes made to the schedule at any time.

Make Fair Workweek compliance part of your everyday strategy

Staying compliant with Fair Workweek laws comes down to building reliable, consistent processes: publishing schedules on time, limiting last-minute changes, documenting every update, and automating scheduling. 

With Buddy Punch, you can centralize schedules, track changes automatically, and apply pay rules accurately. 

Contributors

• Kelsey Szamet, Kingsley Szamet Employment Lawyers, Employment Attorney
• Jeff Patten, Flatiron Wines & Spirits, Co-Founder and Wine Industry Expert
• Khris Steven, KhrisDigital, Founder
• Ruth Young-Loaeza, NEET®Sheets, CEO & Inventor