The Real Effects of Fair Workweek Laws on Work Schedules: Evidence from Los Angeles

Fair Workweek Laws (FWLs) aim to improve the predictability and stability of employee work schedules. They do so by requiring employers to provide additional pay to workers whose schedules are unilaterally changed by managers without sufficient advance notice. Despite the growing number of U.S. jurisdictions enacting FWLs (currently more than 10), there is little empirical evidence of their effects on work schedules. This paper examines the impact of Los Angeles’ FWL on the predictability and stability of work schedules, utilizing administrative data from seven independent retail chains operating in Los Angeles. We find that Los Angeles’s FWL increased the predictability of work schedules, with shift-level advance notice increasing by 8.6%, corresponding to an increase of 1.31 additional days per shift. Furthermore, the share of shifts scheduled with less than 14 days’ notice decreased from 49.9% to 34.8%. However, we find that the law did not improve upon several commonly used measures of schedule stability (e.g., consistency of shift start times and hours). Our analysis also does not find evidence to support several commonly raised concerns about FWLs, such as reduced work hours, increased turnover, decreased hiring, increased use of part-time workers, and reduced operating hours. Overall, our results suggest that while FWLs can lead to some improvements in schedule predictability with minimal unintended consequences for workers, they may have limited benefits for increasing schedule stability.