Sponsors (21)
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Elizabeth Warren · Last progress December 17, 2025
The bill expands scheduling protections, pay remedies, and enforcement for many low-wage and service-sector workers—improving predictability, caregiver access, and remedies—but imposes sizable compliance costs, litigation risk, and implementation complexity that may reduce hours, hiring, and raise costs for small employers and consumers.
Low-wage hourly workers (especially parents and caregivers) will receive more predictable schedules, advance written notice (e.g., minimum 14 days), and greater input on hours, reducing income instability and making childcare, healthcare, and training easier to arrange.
Employees gain pay protections that compensate schedule instability: predictability pay for last-minute changes, an extra hour for split shifts, and premium (1.5x) pay for short-turnaround shifts, increasing earnings and compensating lost time or rest.
Employees with caregiving, serious-health, or training needs get protected avenues to request schedule changes (denials require bona fide business reasons and explanations), improving access to caregiving, medical care, and education.
Small businesses and employers face substantial new compliance, recordkeeping, pay, and penalty costs which they may offset by reducing hours or hiring, automating, or passing costs to consumers, potentially reducing work opportunities and raising prices.
To avoid predictability-pay and premium-pay liabilities, some employers may limit shift offerings, narrow scheduling flexibility, rely on on-call hiring, or otherwise reduce availability of hours, lowering total earnings for some workers.
Expanded private litigation, civil penalties per violation, fee-shifting, and enhanced subpoena/enforcement powers increase legal exposure and could generate routine litigation or intrusive investigations, burdening employers and diverting resources.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Requires many employers (generally those with 15+ employees) to give covered employees written advance work schedules, provide estimates of expected monthly hours, and pay extra when employers change or shorten schedules on short notice. Gives employees a right to request schedule changes for caregiving, health, or training reasons and to decline shifts with less than 11 hours between shifts (with premium pay for working those shifts). Directs the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Census to run research, add survey questions, run pilot programs, publish guidance, and issue implementing regulations within set deadlines; creates enforcement tools, civil penalties, and a private right of action for violations.