If you run hourly shifts in retail, food service, or hospitality, there's a real chance a "fair workweek" law (also called predictive scheduling) already applies to you — and a better chance nobody on your team has checked. These laws don't announce themselves. They switch on quietly when your headcount or location count crosses a line, and the penalties are per-violation, per-employee, sometimes per-day.
Here's what they actually require, who's on the hook, and how to find out if that's you.
The three obligations, in plain terms
Nearly every fair workweek law is built from the same three pieces:
Advance notice of schedules. You post the schedule a fixed number of days ahead — 14 days in most jurisdictions (NYC retail is 72 hours). Change it after that and the next rule kicks in.
Predictability pay. Change a posted shift — add hours, cut hours, cancel — and you owe the employee extra pay for the disruption. NYC fast food runs $10–$75 per change; most others add roughly an hour of pay, plus a half-rate for hours cut.
Access to hours. Before hiring new staff or bringing on temps, you generally have to offer the available hours to your existing employees first.
Miss any of these and the damages stack. Chicago runs $300–$500 per affected employee, per violation, per day. Philadelphia adds up to $2,000 in liquidated damages plus $200 per employee for good-faith-estimate failures.
The part that actually trips people up: the threshold
The obligations are similar across cities. The coverage tests are not — and that's where employers get caught. Each jurisdiction draws the line differently:
- New York City — Fast food at 30+ locations nationally; retail at 20+ employees.
- Chicago — 100+ employees (nonprofits 250+; restaurants need 30+ locations and 250+ staff). Covers building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, warehousing.
- San Francisco — Formula (chain) retail with 40+ stores worldwide and 20+ SF employees.
- Oregon — 500+ employees worldwide, in retail, hospitality, or food service.
- Seattle — 500+ employees worldwide (retail and food service); full-service restaurants at 40+ locations.
- Philadelphia — 250+ employees and 30+ locations worldwide.
- Los Angeles County (unincorporated, effective 2025) — Retail with 300+ employees worldwide.
Notice the traps. Some count employees, some count locations, some count both. Some count worldwide headcount even though the law only protects local workers. A 12-store regional chain can be exempt in one city and squarely covered in the next county over.
How to check your own status in two minutes
I put together a free, no-signup checker that walks through it: pick your jurisdiction, answer two questions (industry and size), and it tells you whether you're likely covered and links to the specific rule. No email, and it deliberately does not compute a dollar liability — it just routes you to the obligation that applies.
→ Am I covered by a fair workweek law? (free checker)
Every figure above is pulled from the underlying statutes and ordinances; the checker links each verdict to its source so you can read the rule yourself.
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