You’ve probably heard the term Fair Workweek by now, and even seen the headlines about everyday brands being hit with huge fines. As the law rolls out to more locations in the U.S., more businesses are taking notice – and for good reason.
The cost of violations has been staggering, with many businesses on the hook for millions of dollars from compliance mistakes that could have been avoided. In 2022 alone, businesses paid over $27 million in violations.
Managers are quickly realizing that implementing complex Fair Workweek requirements is a challenging process without the right software – especially for large businesses with multiple locations.
To help businesses simplify compliance with the law and reduce the complexity of labor compliance, Deputy has launched new Fair Workweek software. Keep reading to learn more.
What is Fair Workweek?
Fair Workweek laws, also known as Predictive or Secure Scheduling laws, is a set of labor laws designed to protect the work-life balance and financial stability of shift workers through fair scheduling practices.
These regulations aim to give employees stable schedules week to week, with fewer last-minute changes, which means predictable paychecks and less stress when it comes to planning life outside work.
For covered employers, there are many requirements they need to meet to stay compliant. While Fair Workweek laws differ from city to city, they tend to include the requirements listed below. Of course, be sure to consult legal counsel to understand which ordinances may apply to your business.
A good faith estimate of regular work hours, days, and locations;
Advance notice of work schedules — in most cases, 14 days’ advance notice;
Consent and predictability pay for changes to the work schedule;
A chance to say no to extra work or clopenings;
Adequate rest between shifts; and
Access to open shifts before the business hires new staff or temporary workers.
With so many different types of requirements, managers are finding themselves manually creating and updating schedules, constantly rechecking pay premium calculations, taking time away from the business to track every schedule change, and scrambling to find important records.
Take Blank Street as an example. Their team experienced stress when it came to monitoring compliance with secure scheduling laws. They would constantly worry and have to take extra time to re-check work. Since adopting new software, that’s no longer the case.
“I don’t know how to say it better than it just works. With this solution, I no longer have to constantly double-check my work. I receive alerts and notifications that keep me informed, reducing my stress and worry. It’s been a game-changer,” says Mark Bemish from Blank Street.
Deputy: all-in-one fair workweek management software
Deputy provides a smart, mobile-friendly solution to manage Fair Workweek scheduling rules, premiums, consents, and reporting. So how exactly does Deputy help you manage all the different parts of Fair Workweek? Let’s dive into it.
Create and update Good Faith Estimates
Deputy’s Regular Working Hours feature allows you to create and manage a Good Faith Estimate for each team member for certain cities and states.
Team members can then view and compare their good faith estimate with their work schedules in our mobile app, email, or on the web. Easily send a request for consent when an employee’s work schedule or good faith estimate is changed and we’ll document it for you.
Get visual warnings and capture employee consent when scheduling outside of good faith estimates.
Build smart schedules far in advance and instantly publish them to your team
Deputy empowers you to create fair, profitable schedules well in advance to ensure workers get early notice of shifts — and business needs are met.
You can create schedules based on accurate labor demand forecasts to minimize costly changes and auto-apply the good faith estimate. Instantly publish schedules to staff via SMS, push notifications, or email. Managers can also see when a schedule change would incur premium pay.
Employees can claim shifts, and managers can configure a requirement to approve when shifts are claimed.
Employee consent from any device
When schedule changes happen on short notice, Deputy helps you simplify compliance by helping managers understand which schedule changes require consent and collecting employee consent for changes.
Our software provides change warnings that require consent and alerts where there are scheduled premiums. For example: variances between their upcoming work schedule vs. the good faith estimate, clopenings, or adding hours to the published work schedule.
You can also assign meals or breaks, remind employees to take them, and record employee attestation when breaks are missed.
Record employee consent for schedule changes and clopenings
Our system offers fair workweek reports that track schedule change history, consent, and predictability pay. We provide valuable operational reports for attendance, sales, employee well-being, and customer reports.
You can easily access digital records whenever auditable records are needed. They can serve as proof that your business is staying compliant with the law if you’re audited by Fair Workweek regulators.
It can also prevent unnecessary payroll and penalty pay disputes down the line.
Automate tracking and calculations for all Predictability Payments
Deputy’s visual flags act as guardrails for managers to highlight changes that will incur predictability pay. Predictability pay is additional compensation to covered employees due to last-minute changes to their schedules. If changes are unavoidable, Deputy suggests predictability pay to our customers.
Suggested predictability pay is also added to employee timesheets, which reduces the risk of human error.
Easily offer available shifts to existing workers
Create open shifts that can be shared via email, text, and mobile app notifications to existing employees. Employees can claim shifts through Deputy’s mobile app or the web.
You can configure requirements for manager approval when shifts are claimed. Post a notice of available shifts for all the suitable employees on News Feed and create a transparent record of compliance.
Why investing in Fair Workweek software is worthwhile
When it comes to managing complex scheduling laws such as Fair Workweek, with high financial risks, it’s so important to reduce human error. So often businesses could have avoided major fines by having software in place to track compliance with the law, provide guardrails for managers, and simplify tasks like premium pay calculations.
Deputy’s scheduling software enables businesses like Faherty to stay on top of Fair Workweek requirements and provide their employees with fair and predictable schedules.
"Deputy’s Fair Workweek software meets our compliance requirements and helps to provide our employees with a better work-life balance. Deputy improves our business operations with an employee-first mentality," says Xuanan Romov from Faherty.
Deputy’s continued commitment to supporting businesses with simplifying labor law compliance has been instrumental in saving managers valuable time and resources, so they can shift their focus back to the business and customers.
Tom Spoke from Trek says his team has been able to get back on the floor, help customers, and get more sales out the door since using Deputy.
“Deputy is making sure we have all our ducks in a row in terms of staff schedules, time tracking is working, and we have the right labor laws in place. That’s all stuff that our managers shouldn’t have to think about.”
To learn more about how Deputy can help you manage Fair Workweek requirements and make a positive impact on your workforce, get in touch with one of our experts today.
The information provided in this publication is for general informational purposes only. Deputy makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, with respect to the software or the information contained in this publication. While Deputy’s software is designed to simplify shift work by assisting with hiring, onboarding, scheduling, time and attendance tracking, payroll integration, and wage and hour compliance, it is not a substitute for payroll or legal advice, nor is it intended to relieve you of your obligation to comply with the legal requirements applicable to your business. It is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that your use of Deputy complies with all applicable laws and regulations. Please review our Product Specific Terms for more information about your compliance responsibilities.
