Flexible Workplace Solutions for Low-Wage Hourly Workers

2. Unpredictable Scheduling Practices
Predictability of work schedules has been defi ned as the length of advance notice given to workers
regarding which shifts they will be required to work. 69 We extend the meaning of unpredictability
to include being required to work overtime or extra hours with little or no notice. To the best of
our knowledge, there is no known national data that directly examines the prevalence of workers
receiving their schedules with little or no notice. Thus, to fully understand the scope of this
scheduling challenge, we fi rst turn to three leading research studies on scheduling and fl exible
workplace practices, and then supplement this information using the 2008 NSCW to determine the
prevalence of overtime hours being required with little or no notice.
Last minute posting of schedules. In a study led by Lambert of low-skilled, non-production jobs in
17 major U.S. corporations in four industries (hospitality, airlines and packaging delivery, retail, and
fi nancial services) scheduling with little advance notice was common practice in every industry. 70
Only three of the 17 corporations gave more than a week’s notice of schedules. The rest of the
organizations posted schedules on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday for a work week that began on
Sunday, giving as little as two days’ notice of schedules. Lambert also observed that some workers
in that study experienced unpredictability when they were called in to work at the last minute to
respond to last minute fl uctuations in business demand.
Last minute posting of schedules was common practice in another study of low-wage hourly workers
in a Fortune 100 retail company. 71 Across multiple stores located in geographically disparate regions
in the country, the average amount of notice of work schedules that these workers received was
seven days.
Finally, in a study of 32 companies across a broad range of industries, unpredictable schedules were
more common in service industries (e.g., retail, fi nancial, and food service) and less common in
manufacturing industries (e.g., electronics, food, manufacturing). 72
Last minute overtime or extra hours requirement. Unpredictable scheduling also includes being
required to work overtime or extra hours with little or no notice. Overall, overtime requirements
appear to be common among low-wage hourly workers in jobs with both standard and nonstandard
schedules, though this practice is slightly more prevalent among workers in jobs with nonstandard
schedules. As noted in Table 8, 31% of full-time and 19% of part-time low-wage hourly workers on
standard schedules are regularly required to work extra hours with little or no notice, while the same
is true of about 36% of full-time workers and 27% of part-time workers on nonstandard schedules.
Among low-wage hourly workers who are regularly asked to work overtime or extra hours, about 58%
of full-time and 14% of part-time workers on standard schedules and 43% of full-time and 24% of
part-time workers on nonstandard schedules must work overtime or extra hours to avoid negative
consequences.
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