← Fair workweek schedule checker
Predictive scheduling laws, also called fair workweek laws, make covered restaurant, retail and hospitality employers do three things: post schedules ahead of time, pay extra when they change a posted shift at short notice, and leave a minimum rest between a closing shift and the next opening. The extra pay is easy to miss because it never appears as a line on the schedule. It appears as a change.
Late posting. A schedule must go up a set number of days before the shift, 14 under the Seattle and Chicago presets. A shift that starts sooner than that after posting is flagged.
Short-notice change. Under the Seattle and Chicago presets, adding hours or moving a shift without cutting hours inside 14 days costs one hour of pay at the worker's regular rate. Cutting or cancelling a shift costs half the pay for the hours not worked: Seattle applies that inside 14 days, Chicago only inside 24 hours.
Rest. Ten hours between shifts. Scheduling less needs the worker's written consent and 1.25 times pay for the hours inside the window.
The schedule is posted at 2026-10-05 09:00. Five shifts follow; four changes are made later. Rates are in the checker's example.
| Employee | What happened | Notice | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ana Reyes | Shift cancelled (8 h at $20) | 24 h | $80.00 |
| Ben Okoye | Four-hour shift added | 48 h | $15.00 |
| Dee Park | Shift cut from 8 h to 4 h (at $16) | 3 h | $32.00 |
| Dee Park | Extra shift added at her request | — | $0.00 |
| Cy Dahl | Closes at 23:00, opens at 06:00: 7 h rest, 3 h inside the window (at $14) | — | $10.50 |
Total to review: $137.50. The same schedule under the Chicago preset costs less on the cancellation, because a cancel is only penalised inside 24 hours there.
A city or state rule that makes larger retail, restaurant and hospitality employers post work schedules in advance, usually 14 days, and pay the worker extra when the employer then adds hours, moves a shift or cancels one at short notice. Seattle, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oregon each have their own version with different thresholds and different premiums.
Paste the posted schedule and the date it was posted, paste each later change with the time the worker was told, pick the city preset or type your own numbers, and the page lists every shift that was posted too late, every change made inside the notice window with the premium pay it triggers, and every closing-then-opening pair that breaks the rest rule.
It depends on the city. Under the Seattle and Chicago presets a change that adds hours or moves a shift inside 14 days costs one hour of pay at the worker's regular rate, and a cancellation or cut inside the window costs half the pay for the hours not worked. The page applies the numbers in the boxes, which you can overwrite to match the current text of your own ordinance.