The Effects of the Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance on the Daily Lives of Low-Wage Workers and their Families

Emeryville, CA’s Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) aimed to reduce service workers’ schedule unpredictability by requiring large retail and food service employers to provide advanced notice of schedules and to compensate workers for last-minute schedule changes. From a 1-in-6 sample of Emeryville retail and food service workers with young children (58 percent working in regulated businesses at baseline, the rest in the same industries in firms below the size cutoff for regulation), this study gathered daily reports of work schedule unpredictability and worker and family well-being over three waves before and after FWO implementation (N=6,059 observations). The FWO decreased working parents’ schedule unpredictability relative to those in similar jobs at unregulated establishments. The FWO also decreased parents’ days worked while increasing hours per work day, leaving total hours roughly unchanged. Finally, parent well-being improved, with significant declines in sleep difficulty.