The Secure Scheduling Movement: Why Every State Should Consider Enacting Secure Scheduling Legislation

• Author: Amanda Miggo
• Position: J.D. Candidate, Capital University Law School, 2019
• Pages: 156-183

THE SECURE SCHEDULING MOVEMENT: WHY EVERY STATE

SHOULD CONSIDER ENACTING SECURE SCHEDULING

LEGISLATION

AMANDA MIGGO*

I. INTRODUCTION

Imagine working a retail job that requires you to live paycheck to

paycheck. This week you are scheduled for thirty-five hours. Because you

make $10 an hour, you expect to make $350 this week. Unfortunately,

business is slow this week and your employer cancels one of your

scheduled shifts and sends you home early from two of your other

scheduled shifts. Your thirty-five hour work week is now only twenty

hours, and you had no control over the reduction in your hours. Your

paycheck is $150 less than what you originally planned, and you now

cannot pay your electric bill on time.

The above scenario is the reason why every state should adopt a secure

scheduling law (also referred to as predictable scheduling laws). Secure

scheduling laws are meant to help prevent situations like the one described

above by giving hourly wage employees more predictability and security in

their schedules.

1

Secure scheduling laws are starting to take effect in

different cities and states across the United States, and have been said to be

“the next big legislative trend in the employment sector.”

2

Secure

Copyright © 2019, Amanda Miggo.

* J.D. Candidate, Capital University Law School, 2019; B.A., Capi tal University, 2016.

I would like to thank all my professors at Capital for enhancing my love of the law.

Additionally, I would like to give a special thanks to Trisha Corbin for introducing me to

this topic and for creating my passion for labor and employment law.

1

See Lisa Nagele-Piazza, Predictable Scheduling Laws: The Next Trend in Workplace

Regulations, SOC’Y FOR HUM. RESOURCE MGMT. (Sept. 27, 2016) https://www.shrm.org/

resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/predictableschedul

ing-laws.aspx [https://perma.cc/7Z3P-LMVY] (asserting that Seattle’s Secure Scheduling

Ordinance was designed to provide predictability and income stabilization). See also S.F.,

CAL., POLICE CODE art. 33G § 3300G.2(i) (2018) (stating the purpose of San Francisco’s

Predictable Scheduling and Fair Treatment for Formula Retail Employees ordinance).

2

Mark S. Goldstein & Sarah T. Hansel, 'Predictable Scheduling’—The Next Big

Legislative Trend?, LAW360 (Dec. 1, 2015), https://www.law360.com/articles/731096. See

also, e.g., SEATTLE, WASH., MUN. CODE § 14.22.020 (2018); S.F., CAL., POLICE CODE §§

3300G.1–G.18 (2018) ; S.B. 828, 79th Legi. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Or. 2017); N.Y. COMP.

CODES RULES & REGS. tit. 12, pt. 142 (2017).

156 CAPITAL UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [47:155

scheduling laws are just one way local governments are trying to bridge the

poverty gap within their communities.

3

Specifically, these laws are designed for larger retail and restaurant

employers.

4

These laws require such employers to provide predictable and

secure scheduling to their employees, which in turn provides the

employees more stability in their personal lives and overall well-being.

5

With the hope that secure scheduling legislation will help improve social

equality, this is a hot topic right now in employment law, and legislatures

must continue to enact laws promoting secure scheduling.

6

This Comment highlights the specific cities and states which have

already implemented secure scheduling laws, and the positive effects these

laws are having within their communities. Additionally, this Comment

will discuss why every state should consider implementing a secure

scheduling law to improve not only the lives of its employees, but also to

improve individual businesses and the economy.

Furthermore, this Comment will go into great depth to discuss the

challenges that employers, employees, and the economy are facing with

these new scheduling laws. By highlighting the potential challenges secure

scheduling laws can produce, this Comment intends to provide guidance to

states on how to best implement their own laws, rather than scaring away

legislatures who are considering enacting secure scheduling legislation.

First, in Section II this Comment discusses the history of secure

scheduling legislation. Then, in Section III.A, this Comment will look at

the policy arguments for why secure scheduling laws have been

implemented, and why they should continue to be implemented across the

United States. A majority of this Comment (Sections III.B–III.E) will then

3

See, e.g., S.F., CAL., POLICE CODE § 3300G.2 (2018) (enumerating the various

sociological and economic reasons for why San Francisco “has a strong interest in ensuring

that the jobs these formula retail establishments provide allow employees to meet their

basic needs and achieve economic security.”). See also Goldstein, supra note 2 (noting the

impact of “unstable” work schedules on an employee’s ability to receive a steady income).

4

See, e.g., SEATTLE, WASH., MUN. CODE § 14.22.020 (2018) (statute only covers

employers that are retail or food service establishments “that employ 500 or more

employees worldwide regardless of where those employees are employed”); S. F., CAL.,

POLICE CODE § 3300G.3 (2018) (statute only covers employers that are Formula Retail

Establishments “with 20 or more Employees in the City” and “have at least 40 retail sales

establishments located worldwide.”).

5

See SEATTLE, WASH., MUN. CODE § 14.22.012 (2018) (stating that the intent of

Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance “is to establish predictable work schedules that

advance race and social equity, promote greater economic security, [and] further the health,

safety and welfare of employees . . . .”).

6

See Goldstein, supra note 2.