Simplify compliance with Chicago Fair Workweek
- Create fair and good faith estimates of work schedules
- Minimize predictability pay with advance notices of shifts
- Pay the right predictability pay for last minute changes to schedules
- Give your team the right amount of downtime to avoid clopening penalties
The Chicago Fair Workweek Law
According to the Society of Human Resource Management and A Better Balance, the Chicago’s Fair Workweek ordinance applies to building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, and warehouse services businesses that have at least 100 or more employees worldwide and 50 or more “covered” employees.
A “covered employee” are those that do not include contractors or temp workers, works 420 hours within an 18-month period, works most of the time in Chicago, and earns less than $50,000 as a salaried employee or $26 per hour or less.
Elements of the Chicago Fair Workweek Law
The ordinance requires good faith estimates of employee work schedule for the first 90 days of employment, notification requirements, 14-day advance notice of schedule changes, consent and predictability pay for schedule changes, a ban on clopenings, additional hours offered to existing employees before hiring new employees, and privacy requirements for survivors of domestic or sexual violence.
Rights to rest, rights to request schedule changes, access to hours, and anti-retaliation protections for employees are also mandated by the ordinance.
Also included are requirements to ensure “predictability” pay due to certain changes made to an employee’s schedule such as additional hours, changes in the date and time of work, or canceling a shift with less than 24 hours notice.
Penalties and enforcement
According to Seyfarth, the Chicago Fair Workweek ordinance prohibits retaliation and establishes a $1,000 fine for violating the anti-retaliation provision. Other violations are subject to fines of $300 to $500 for each offense, and each day that a violation occurs constitutes a separate offense subject to a separate fine.
Did you know that businesses across the U.S. in cities with fair workweek laws paid more than $27 million in violations last year? That includes fines and restitutions paid by the following businesses in 2022: Chipotle, Shake Shack, McDonald’s, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and Del Frisco’s.
We keep up to date with Fair workweek
"Our in-house employment attorneys partner with several leading employment law firms in the United States to keep up to date on the evolving fair workweek legal landscape."
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Five ways Deputy helps you stay compliant with Chicago Fair Workweek
1. Good Faith Estimate
Provide an estimate of work days, times & locations
Before a new team member starts their first shift, provide an estimate of where, when, and how often they’ll work. Issue a digital copy via Deputy, capture employee confirmation, and create an electronic record of compliance.
2. Advanced notice of schedules
Give early notice of shifts & minimize predictability pay
Create perfect schedules well in advance and share them with your employees instantly. Plan your team’s shifts based on accurate demand forecasts, publish schedules via web or app, and minimize compensation payments for last-minute changes.
3. Compensation for changes
When late changes happen, pay the right premiums
Sometimes schedules need to change at short notice — we’ve all been there. When they do, Deputy helps you stay compliant. Our software can record schedule amendments, calculate the required predictability pay, and capture employee consent to the change.
4. Rest between shifts
Give staff enough downtime & avoid clopening penalties
Clopening is when employees work a closing and opening shift back to back without enough rest. When you build schedules in Deputy, we’ll alert you when staff are at risk of clopening, calculate the required compensation, and help you find employees who can work the shifts without penalties.
5. Access to hours
Give your current staff first pick of available shifts
When new shifts become available, employers need to give their current part-time staff the opportunity to claim those hours before they hire new team members. That’s straightforward with Deputy News feed: just post a notice for all the suitable employees and create a transparent record of compliance.
Why choose Deputy?
Deputy is at the forefront of helping American retailers, restaurants, fast food franchises, and other hospitality businesses manage fair workweek compliance. Our in-house employment attorneys and legal experts consult with government bodies, leading employment law firms, and business owners to keep our software configured to the latest regulations and employer requirements – even in cities with strict compliance regulations, such as Los Angeles & Chicago. To find out how Deputy can help with Fair Workweek compliance in Chicago, visit our help center.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance?
Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance guarantees that many employees in a broad range of industries get predictable work schedules so that they can reasonably plan their income and their lives. Covered employees have several rights under the law including the right to decline unscheduled hours, predictability pay for schedule changes, pay for canceled hours and shifts, right to rest between shifts, good faith estimate of work schedule, and an opportunity to become full-time through access to hours requirements.
- Who is considered a covered employee by the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance?
Employees who work a majority of their time in Chicago in a covered industry and earn $50,000 or less (if salaried) or $26 per hour (if hourly). Covered industries include building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurant, retail, or warehouse services that employ 100 or more employees. Temporary workers are also covered if they work more than 420 hours for an Employer within an 18-month period.
- Where can I find a copy of the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance notice?
The Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection provides the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance notice on the website of the Office of Labor Standards.
- What kind of rest breaks between shifts are required?
Covered Employees can decline shifts that begin less than 10 hours following the end of the previous day’s shift. If Covered Employees agree to work such a shift, they must be paid at 1.25 times their regular rate of pay.
- What is predictability pay in Chicago?
Covered Employees are entitled to receive one hour’s additional pay when hours are added to a shift, or a shift’s time or date is changed with no change to the number of hours, within 14 days of the beginning of the Work Schedule during which that shift takes place. Covered Employees also receive one hour’s additional pay when hours are subtracted from a shift within 14 days of the start of the Work Schedule but with more than 24 hours' notice of the beginning of the impacted shift. When hours are subtracted with less than 24 hours' notice of the beginning of a shift, other rules apply.
- Is it legal to work 7 days in a row in Illinois?
An Illinois law, The One Day Rest in Seven Act, as its name implies, allows for at least 24 hours of rest every seven consecutive days. Under this Act, employers may ask the Illinois Department of Labor for a relaxation of this requirement for employees to volunteer to work a seventh day. If the Illinois Department of Labor grants a relaxation, it requires a statement from the employer demonstrating that all employees who will be working seven days in a row are in fact volunteers. For more information, visit the ODRISA page (effective January 1, 2023).
Insights from our compliance experts
This page only provides a summary. For more details about the specific fair workweek pay rules that Deputy helps solve, visit our help center.