The Windy City is winding up to implement new workplace regulations. Like other cities such as New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, these new laws are being set to ensure a predictable, fair working environment for employees.
Chicago’s Fair Workweek ordinance goes into effect on July 1, 2020. And if you aren’t sure if you’re covered — or even what the law entails — here’s what you need to know.
Read on for your all-in-one guide to the Chicago Fair Workweek regulations.
Who’s covered under Chicago Fair Workweek
Not all workers fall under the Chicago Fair Workweek regulations. However, more industries and workers are included in these regulations than in other cities.
If you’re an employee, these are the three requirements for Fair Workweek coverage.
- You work in one of seven “covered” industries (building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, and warehouse services); and
- You make less than $26/hour or $50,000/year; and
- Your employer is covered by the law (see below).
As a manager or owner, you need to know if your business is impacted by these regulations. If you’re an employer, these are the requirements for Fair Workweek coverage.
- You are primarily engaged in a covered industry (building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, and warehouse services); and
- Your business employs 100 or more employees (or 250 employees for nonprofits); and
- At least 50 of those employees are covered by the Ordinance.
- Franchises with 3 or fewer locations in Chicago are exempted.
The requirements under Chicago Fair Workweek
While each city has its own rules, here is the lowdown on the regulations for Chicago Fair Workweek:
- Good faith estimate. Employers must provide new hires with a good faith estimate that includes the days of the week they can be expected to work, and the start and end times of their shifts for those days.
- Advance notice of work schedules. Employers must post the work schedule at least 10 days in advance.
- Predictability pay. When employers make changes to the schedule less than 10 days before the work schedule starts, employees must be paid one hour of additional pay for every impacted shift. That number goes up if employers make changes with less than 24 hours notice. In that case, staff must receive 50% of their pay for any hours that were subtracted from the original schedule and one hour of additional pay for every impacted shift (either additional hours or changes to the shift with no loss of hours). No predictability pay is required for mutually-agreed shift swaps between employees or employee-requested schedule changes.
- Right to decline previously unscheduled hours. If an employer tries to schedule additional hours, the employee may decline working those hours.
- No clopening shifts. Trying to schedule someone for opening who closed the previous night? No more. Employees have the right to rest by declining work hours less than 10 hours after the end of the previous day’s shift. Violation of that scheduling will result in the employer needing to pay 1.25 times the base pay for any shift that begins less than 10 hours after the end of the previous shift.
Create fair, profitable schedules in advance
Staying on top of Fair Workweek regulations is tough, but there are ways to automate the process for you. Deputy provides tools that help you manage other wage and hour laws in tandem with Fair Workweek.
