Sponsors (52)
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress December 17, 2025
The bill meaningfully increases schedule predictability, pay protections, and enforcement tools for many low‑wage and caregiving workers — improving planning, income stability, and safety — at the cost of higher compliance and labor costs, greater administrative and litigation burdens, and some loss of scheduling flexibility for workers and operational flexibility for small employers.
Low‑wage, retail, hospitality, and other covered workers (and parents/caregivers) gain substantially more predictable schedules — including 14 days' written notice, 12‑month minimum‑hour estimates, and extra pay for short‑notice or split shifts — improving income stability, planning for childcare/health care, and job satisfaction.
Shift workers gain health and safety protections — including an 11‑hour rest rule and the ability to refuse short‑turnaround shifts without penalty — which reduces fatigue and can improve sleep, mental health, and child outcomes.
Workers receive stronger rights and enforcement tools: anti‑retaliation protections, clearer notice/posting of rights, administrative enforcement (Secretary subpoena and civil penalties), and private remedies (lost wages, liquidated damages, attorney fees) that make it easier to vindicate scheduling rights.
Small businesses and some employers face materially higher labor and compliance costs (advance‑notice penalties, premium pay, administrative tracking, possible litigation) that could be passed to consumers or lead to reduced hiring, fewer hours, or higher prices.
The law creates significant administrative and legal complexity — multiple overlapping standards, new recordkeeping, rulemakings, and enforcement processes — increasing burdens on employers and government agencies and raising the risk of disputes or litigation.
Workers who prefer last‑minute or highly flexible shift opportunities could lose flexibility or income opportunities because predictability rules and consent requirements privilege scheduled work over spontaneous shifts.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Sets federal minimums for predictable schedules: 14-day notice, annual minimum-hour estimates, pay for short-notice changes and split shifts, rights to request schedule changes, and enforcement tools.
Creates federal minimum rules to make work schedules more predictable and fair. Employers covered by the law must give workers written schedules at least 14 days in advance, provide yearly minimum-hour estimates, pay extra when schedules change on short notice or when shifts are split, and allow employees to request schedule changes through a required interactive process. The Department of Labor must issue guidance, run research and pilot programs, add scheduling questions to national surveys, and issue implementing regulations within 180 days. The law preserves higher protections from other laws and allows collective bargaining agreements to opt out if they explicitly govern scheduling and waive these provisions. Employees also get protections against retaliation, a right to decline shifts that start less than 11 hours after their prior shift (or be paid time-and-a-half), and private and administrative enforcement remedies including back pay, interest, liquidated damages, and equitable relief. Employers must post a notice describing worker rights and keep records; failure to post can carry civil penalties.