Static educational checklist — not a calculator. No schedule inputs, no predictability-pay engines, no live premium math. Spot common predictive scheduling / fair workweek / secure scheduling red flags under city and state ordinances (NYC Fair Workweek, Seattle Secure Scheduling, Chicago Fair Workweek, Oregon predictive scheduling, Los Angeles Fair Work Week, Philadelphia Fair Workweek, San Francisco fair scheduling) and related FLSA regular-rate notes such as 29 CFR § 778.222. Distinct from California make-up time (LC 513), continuous-workday / reporting-time, split-shift premiums, NY spread-of-hours, alternative workweek elections, and compensatory-time pages.
Baseline — what predictive scheduling is (and is not)
Predictive scheduling / fair workweek laws generally require covered employers to post schedules in advance, pay predictability pay (or equivalent premiums) for late changes, honor right-to-rest / anti-clopening rules between closing and opening shifts, offer additional hours to existing part-time workers before new hires (access to hours), and keep schedule-change records. Coverage, notice windows, premium formulas, and industry scope differ by jurisdiction — retail, food service, hospitality, and large employers are common targets, but each ordinance has its own headcount, industry, and geographic triggers. These local rules sit on top of FLSA overtime and state reporting-time / split-shift / spread-of-hours floors; they are not private-sector “comp time,” not California make-up time, and not an FLSA fluctuating-workweek plan. This page does not compute predictability pay — it only flags compliance red flags.
Checklist — predictive scheduling / fair workweek red flags
Advance-notice window ignored (or only a draft “posted” informally). Flag schedules texted the night before, whiteboard-only posts with no retained copy, or “living” cloud schedules rewritten daily without a frozen good-faith estimate / written schedule meeting the local notice period (commonly 14 days in NYC / Chicago / Seattle / OR / Philly / LA / SF variants — check the ordinance you are under). Missing a dated posted schedule is the classic audit start.
Employer-initiated late changes with no predictability pay (or only “voluntary” labels). Flag added / subtracted / shifted hours inside the notice window paid at straight time only, manager pressure to “agree” to cuts that waive premiums, or change logs that never trigger the ordinance’s predictability-pay schedule. Employee-requested swaps can be treated differently — but employer-driven changes usually are not free.
Right-to-rest / anti-clopening gaps between close and open ignored. Flag back-to-back close-then-open shifts inside the protected rest window (often 10–11 hours depending on the city), “voluntary” clopening consent forms that are never truly voluntary, or missing rest premiums when the gap is shortened. Distinct from FLSA sleep-time and continuous-workday doctrines.
Access-to-hours / offer-to-existing-part-timers skipped before new hires. Flag posting open shifts to Indeed while current part-timers never saw the offer, vague Slack blasts with no written record, or “must take the whole block” rules that effectively block qualified incumbents. Access-to-hours is a separate duty from predictability pay.
Coverage myths — wrong industry, headcount, or geography. Flag applying NYC fast-food / retail Fair Workweek rules to a suburban non-covered shop, treating Seattle Secure Scheduling as statewide Washington law, assuming Chicago Fair Workweek covers every employer regardless of size, or skipping LA / Philly / SF thresholds. Conversely, flag multi-site chains that assume “we’re small locally” when the ordinance counts enterprise headcount.
Predictability pay confused with reporting-time, split-shift, or spread-of-hours premiums. Flag payroll macros that treat a late schedule cut as CA reporting-time pay only, NY call-in / split premiums only, or NY hospitality spread-of-hours only — and never stack or separately evaluate the local fair-workweek premium when both can apply. Different statutes; different triggers.
On-call / standby shifts posted without following the ordinance’s on-call rules. Flag “maybe needed Saturday — check your phone” shifts that never pay the required on-call predictability premium (or that violate bans on certain on-call practices), then conflating the issue with FLSA engaged-to-wait analysis alone.
Good-faith estimate / first-schedule documentation missing for new hires. Flag new employees who never received a written estimate of median hours / on-call expectations, or whose actual hours systematically diverge from the estimate with no update process. Several ordinances treat the good-faith estimate as a standalone duty.
FLSA § 778.222 “predictability pay” / schedule-change premium regular-rate mixups. Flag treating local predictability-pay premiums as always excludable from (or always includable in) the FLSA regular rate without reading § 778.222 and the underlying payment’s character — and flag OT recomputation that silently drops those premiums when they belong in the regular rate.
Schedule-change logs, consent records, and stub coding gaps. Flag weeks where hours were edited in the time clock with no retained change notice, no employee consent / decline record for voluntary swaps, and no wage-statement line that shows predictability pay separately from wages / OT. Record gaps turn every late change into a he-said / she-said dispute.