Fair Workweek laws (also called predictive scheduling or secure scheduling) are US city and state rules that require certain retail and food employers to give workers advance notice of their schedules, pay a premium when they change shifts late, and respect rest between shifts. This guide explains what they require, where they apply, and how Schedaddle helps you stay on top of them — and, honestly, what it does not do for you.
Predictive-scheduling laws exist to end the practice of giving hourly retail and food workers their schedules with little or no notice, changing them at the last minute, and scheduling back-to-back close-then-open shifts. They typically apply to larger retail and food-service employers above an employee or location threshold, and they create a small set of concrete obligations a store manager has to meet every single week.
The details differ by jurisdiction, but the recurring obligations are: give advance written notice of the schedule; pay a "predictability pay" premium when you change a posted shift; offer a good-faith estimate of hours at hire; give a right to rest between shifts (no forced clopens); offer extra hours to existing staff before hiring new people; and keep records that prove you did all of the above.
As of 2026, jurisdictions with predictive-scheduling laws covering retail and/or food service include Oregon (the only statewide law), and the cities of New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, Los Angeles (city) and unincorporated Los Angeles County, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Evanston, Illinois. Coverage thresholds, covered industries, and premium amounts vary by location and change over time.
Treat this list as a starting point, not legal advice. If you operate in or near one of these areas, confirm the current ordinance and your coverage threshold with the local agency or your employment counsel before relying on any process — including this one.
Advance notice: post the written schedule a set number of days ahead (often 14). Predictability pay: when you add, move, or cancel a posted shift inside the notice window, you usually owe the employee extra pay. Right to rest: an employee can decline a shift that starts within a set number of hours (often 10–11) of their previous one — the "clopen" rule — and is owed a premium if they work it.
Good-faith estimate: at hire, give a written estimate of expected hours and shifts. Access to hours: before hiring or using a staffing agency, offer the extra hours to existing qualified employees. Recordkeeping: keep schedules, changes, and consent records (often for 2–3 years) so you can show what was posted and what changed.
Advance publishing: Schedaddle is built to publish the weekly schedule ahead of time and notify staff by app and email, which is the foundation of meeting an advance-notice requirement. A version-stamped change log records every post-publish edit — what moved, and when — giving you the documentation trail these laws expect, instead of a verbal "I told them."
Rest-aware drafting: the auto-scheduler de-prioritizes scheduling someone to close and then open the next morning, so clopens are the exception you choose, not the default you miss. Saved availability is treated as a hard constraint, and fair rotation spreads opens and closes across the team. Together these reduce the situations that trigger predictability pay in the first place.
Being straight with you: Schedaddle does not automatically calculate predictability pay, does not enforce a specific jurisdiction’s advance-notice window, and does not generate good-faith hour estimates or track consent for short-notice shifts. Its labor-law data is a reference for overtime thresholds, breaks, and public holidays — not an automated Fair Workweek compliance engine.
In practice that means Schedaddle gives you the advance publishing, the change record, and the rest-aware roster that make compliance far easier to operate and to prove — but you (and your counsel) remain responsible for the jurisdiction-specific math and rules. Automated predictive-scheduling support for specific US cities is on our roadmap; it is not shipped today.
No. Schedaddle gives you advance publishing, a version-stamped change log, and rest-aware scheduling that support compliance, but it does not automatically calculate predictability pay or enforce each city’s rules. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction or employment counsel.
As of 2026: Oregon statewide, plus New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, Los Angeles city and county, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Evanston, IL. Coverage thresholds and rules vary and change — verify locally.
The auto-scheduler de-prioritizes assigning an employee a closing shift followed by the next morning’s opening, so clopens become a deliberate exception rather than an accidental default. Availability is also a hard constraint.
Yes. Schedules are published with version stamps and post-publish edits are kept in a change log, giving you a record of what was posted and what changed — the kind of documentation predictive-scheduling laws expect.
This guide is general information, current as of 2026, and is not legal advice. Verify current rules with your jurisdiction or employment counsel.
Schedaddle's advance publishing, version-stamped change log, and rest-aware drafting make predictive-scheduling rules easier to operate and to prove.