Employees increasingly face “just-in-time” scheduling practices, including being given very little notice of their work schedules, being sent home early when work is slow without being paid for their scheduled shifts, being assigned to work split shifts that are broken up over the course of a day, and being assigned to “on-call” shifts that require them to call their employer or wait to be called by their employer to find out whether they will be required to report to work. In addition, many employees have very little ability to make adjustments to their work schedules without penalty. And nearly 6 million workers are currently working only part-time, but would like to be working full time.

There is a growing movement to improve workplace scheduling practices so that workers and their families can better plan their lives. In 2014, San Francisco passed the Retail Workers Bill of Rights, which provides scheduling protections for workers in certain types of jobs.

During the 2015-2016 legislative sessions in the states, New Hampshire signed into law a bill granting workers the right to request flexible schedules, and fair scheduling legislation was considered in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Toward the end of 2016, the cities of Emeryville, Seattle, and San Jose passed fair scheduling ordinances. This report provides an overview of this recently enacted and proposed state and local legislation.