Leading Practices

A survey of 1,717 workers found that more than 40% of hourly paid workers have at least occasional on-call work, often with very short advance notice, and almost half have little to no input into their daily work schedules. More than a third of all workers have less than one week’s advance notice of their schedule, and almost half have a preference to work more hours for more income. Irregular shifts and underemployment are both higher among part-time workers. The findings include a list of public policy recommendations to address the erratic work schedules and their documented work-life consequences for working people.

In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) provided a comprehensive overview with detailed examples of how local governments are protecting workers’ rights by establishing local labor standards offices to enforce workers’ rights laws, establishing worker boards and councils, passing local worker protections laws, setting job quality standards for contractors and internal employers and championing workers issues through local public leadership.

Emeryville, California, implemented a scheduling ordinance in 2017 (see resources on the city's website including posters and FAQs). It specifically addresses advanced notice, predictability of pay, the right for the worker to have input into schedules, requirements for rest and right to address a flexible working arrangement.

The Gap ran a pilot at 28 stores in San Francisco and Chicago. This report is the first randomized controlled experiment of a multi-component intervention designed to shift schedules in hourly retail jobs toward greater stability. The Stable Scheduling Study found that increasing the stability of work schedules is possible and even profitable in today’s competitive retail environment. Key findings include increases in consistency, predictability and worker input. Adequacy of work hours did not increase for most associates; experienced associates may have benefited more from the shift to stability than inexperienced employees. Stable scheduling significantly increased median sales and labor productivity, and return on investment was high. Fluctuating customer demand is not the primary source of instability; managers consistently implemented advanced notice and elimination of on-calls in both control and treatment stores. Store managers’ responses to the Intervention were generally positive, with a strong recommendation that other business practices be changed at the same time as scheduling practices.

In 2021, Harris County established an Essential Workers Board to advise the county on programs and policies that support essential workers. All members must be “low-income essential workers,” with at least one worker representative from the airport or transportation, construction, domestic work or home care, education or child care, grocery, convenience or drug store, health care or public health, janitorial, food services, hospitality or leisure services, and retail industries. In addition to advising the county on its overall approach to protecting essential workers’ rights and providing a public forum, the board is also tasked with providing feedback on the county’s purchasing and contracting policies; workforce development programs; tax abatement and incentive policies; community benefits agreements; distribution of federal COVID-19 relief and recovery funds; disaster preparedness and recovery programs; OSHA trainings; independent monitoring of local, state, and federal public health and labor laws and inclusive economic development planning.

Founded in 1938, JVS has demonstrated new ways to diversify revenue for and through their job training programs, including charging employers for placement services. In 2018, the organization had $16M in revenue from a mix of private and public funding sources.

A 2013 Kentucky law established the Center for Education and Workforce Statistics, which collects and links high-quality actionable data from five state agencies in order to improve education and workforce programs in the state. By providing data sets, publishing reports and fulfilling research requests, the center provides state-specific insights with appropriate data privacy and data access measures.

In 2016, Minneapolis, Minnesota, created the Labor Standards Enforcement Division within its Department of Civil Rights. Through a team of five employees, the office enforces the city’s paid sick and safe time, minimum wage, wage theft and freelance worker protection laws.

In June 2020, voters amended the city charter to create the Philadelphia Department of Labor. The Office of Worker Protections, located within the Department of Labor, has a total of nine full-time employees and enforces wage theft, paid sick leave and fair work week laws; laws covering specific industries (domestic worker bill of rights, wrongful discharge, recall and/or retention of hotel, travel and hospitality workers) and more. The office established a domestic worker task force and has been tasked with creating a portable benefits system for domestic workers, one of the nation’s first. In addition, in 2020 and 2021, the office partnered with worker organizations on the Philadelphia Worker Relief Fund, helping to distribute more than $2,200,000 to 2,820 families left out of COVID-19 government relief.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  implemented a scheduling ordinance in 2020 (see the city’s website for more resources including a video, FAQ and complaint form). The ordinance specifically addresses advance notice, predictability of pay, the right for the worker to have input into schedules, requirements for rest and allocation of additional shifts to current employees before new employees.

Worksystems Inc., serves as the workforce development board for the City of Portland and Multnomah and Washington Counties. The FY2021 budget projected $27,000,000 in revenue, $12,5000,000 from federal sources like the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and federal grants, $5,000,000 from state contracts including SNAP employment and training, and $9,500,000 in local government and philanthropic funds.

In 2020, the mayor’s office of Providence, Rhode Island, issued an executive order to set the stage for gathering and analyzing the necessary data to understand the current state of inequities in the community.

The San Diego Workforce Partnership, which is the local workforce board, structures its framework (job necessities, job opportunities and job features) based on how different aspects of job quality relate to the individual worker. The framework also includes specific job quality indicators that make up a good job as well as a guide for building job quality into workforce development.

The San Diego County workforce board produced a position paper in 2021 to raise awareness of the importance of scheduling and to support advocacy efforts for the implementation of a scheduling ordinance in the county. The paper addresses the benefits to workers and businesses of making a shift in scheduling stability, predictability and reliability.

The San Diego Workforce Partnership’s FY2022 budget totaled $37,000,000 in revenue: $21,000,000 from Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I funds, $11,500,000 from grants and contracts from sources including TANF and community development block grants $1,500,000 in recurring revenues from a renewable learning fund and $3,500,000 from SNAP employment and training As the organization has increased its focus on job quality, its revenue has moved from 97% funded through WIOA Title I in FY2012 to 56% funded by federal WIOA funds in 2022 (see the attached budget document).

Since 2018, the region’s workforce development board, county elected leaders and the San Diego Foundation have jointly published research and policy positions and host annual convenings to increase investments in the childcare system for working families. These efforts have led to $25,000,000 in American Rescue Plan investments and $10,000,000 in philanthropic funds to support new partnerships for workplace-sponsored childcare for working families.

In 2020, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, the local workforce board, set aside $10,000,000 of funding over four years through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I youth funds to serve youth with the highest rates of youth disconnection, including Black youth, based on the results of local research and public input.

In 2013, San Francisco passed the Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance, providing workers the right to request a flexible or predictable schedule to assist with caregiving responsibilities and requiring employers to engage in an interactive process with workers to develop a schedule that works for both workers and the business. In 2015, San Francisco passed a series of formula retail employee rights ordinances that regulate hours, retention and scheduling and treatment of part-time employees at some formula retail establishments. The laws apply to formula retail establishments with at least 40 stores worldwide and 20 or more employees in San Francisco, as well as their janitorial and security contractors.

In 2015, Seattle, Washington, created the Office of Labor Standards, and by 2022 it had 34 full-time equivalents enforcing 18 city laws including paid sick and safe time; fair chance employment; wage theft; the city’s stable scheduling ordinance for retail and food services workers; ordinances protecting domestic workers, transportation network company drivers and hotel workers and laws enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The office has instituted a number of successful enforcement actions and is active in city labor policymaking.

The Racial and Social Justice Initiative of Seattle, Washington, published this toolkit in 2012 and is advancing a 2022 strategic plan to help city programs and agencies set goals and measure progress to advance specific racial equity goals within government agencies.