I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5563 
To permit employees to request changes to their work schedules without 
fear of retaliation and to ensure that employers consider these requests, 
and to require employers to provide more predictable and stable schedules 
for employees in certain occupations with evidence of unpredictable and 
unstable scheduling practices that negatively affect employees, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023 
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. NORTON, Ms. LEE of Cali-
fornia, Ms. BUDZINSKI, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. CLEAVER, and Mr. 
LYNCH) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Commit-
tees on House Administration, Oversight and Accountability, and the Ju-
diciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To permit employees to request changes to their work sched-
ules without fear of retaliation and to ensure that em-
ployers consider these requests, and to require employers 
to provide more predictable and stable schedules for em-
ployees in certain occupations with evidence of unpredict-
able and unstable scheduling practices that negatively 
affect employees, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Schedules That Work Act’’. 
(b) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) The vast majority of the United States 
workforce today is juggling responsibilities at home 
and at work. Women are primary breadwinners or 
co-breadwinners in 2⁄3 of families with children in 
the United States. 
(2) Despite the dual responsibilities of today’s 
workforce, many workers have little notice of their 
work schedules and lack the ability to make changes 
to the work hours in such schedules, which under-
mines their ability to accommodate family respon-
sibilities. 
(3)(A) Mothers working in low-paid jobs are 
more likely to be the primary or sole breadwinner for 
their families than mothers working in higher-paid 
jobs. For example, nearly 7 in 10 mothers in the 1⁄5 
of households in the United States with the lowest 
incomes bring home all or most of their families’ in-
come, compared to less than 1⁄3 of their counterparts 
in the highest-income quintile. 
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(B) At the same time, low-paid workers often 
have the least control over their work hours and face 
the most unpredictable schedules. In some indus-
tries, ‘‘just-in-time’’ scheduling practices, which base 
workers’ schedules on perceived consumer demand to 
minimize labor costs, are particularly common. Em-
ployers using these practices often post work sched-
ules with little notice, vary work hours widely from 
week to week, cancel shifts at the last minute, and 
schedule employees for ‘‘on call’’ shifts (requiring an 
employee to call in to work to find out whether the 
employee will have to work later that day) or 
‘‘clopening’’ shifts (requiring an employee to work a 
closing shift at night followed by an opening shift a 
few hours later). For example, national survey data 
show that— 
(i) about 2⁄3 of hourly retail and food serv-
ice workers receive their work schedules with 
less than 2 weeks’ advance notice and about 1⁄3 
receive their schedule with less than 1 week’s 
notice; 
(ii) more than 1 in 5 hourly retail and food 
service workers have been scheduled for on-call 
shifts, and more than 1 in 3 have worked 
‘‘clopening’’ shifts; and 
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(iii) 65 percent of hourly retail and food 
service workers would like a more stable and 
predictable schedule. 
(4) Unfair work scheduling practices make it 
difficult for low-paid workers to— 
(A) provide necessary care for children and 
other family members, including securing and 
maintaining stable child care; 
(B) access and receive needed care for the 
workers’ own serious health conditions; 
(C) pursue workforce training; 
(D) get or keep a second job, which many 
workers need to make ends meet; 
(E) plan for and access transportation to 
reach worksites; and 
(F) qualify for and maintain eligibility for 
needed public benefits and work supports, such 
as child care subsidies and benefits under the 
supplemental nutrition assistance program, due 
to fluctuations in income and work hours. 
(5) Unstable work schedules pre-date the pan-
demic and economic recession caused by COVID–19, 
but the harm of these workplace practices was exac-
erbated as millions of workers risked their own 
health and safety at jobs with few protections, vola-
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tile schedules, and inadequate hours, in an effort to 
support themselves and their families. Employers 
continued to use ‘‘just-in-time’’ scheduling practices 
throughout the pandemic, even as workers faced ad-
ditional caregiving challenges due to school and child 
care closures and quarantines. 
(6) A growing body of research demonstrates 
that unstable and unpredictable work schedules have 
significant detrimental impacts on sleep quality, 
mental health, and happiness, and are associated 
with unstable child care arrangements and negative 
health and behavioral outcomes for children. And 
impacts are likely to be the most severe for workers 
of color and their families, as workers of color are 
more likely than their White counterparts—even 
compared to White coworkers at the same com-
pany—to experience unstable work schedules. Unsta-
ble and unpredictable work schedules—and the 
work-family conflict they produce—are also associ-
ated with higher rates of turnover, which creates 
further instability for employers and workers. Some 
examples of the detrimental impacts of unstable and 
unpredictable work schedules are as follows: 
(A) Unstable work schedules lead to more 
household economic strain and time conflicts 
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and undermine the well-being of parents, all of 
which can negatively impact children’s health 
and behavior. 
(B) Workers with the most severe insta-
bility in their work schedules also face the high-
est risk of negative behavior and health out-
comes for their children. 
(C) The exposure of a parent to on-call 
shifts and last-minute shift changes are associ-
ated with more unstable child care arrange-
ments and with the use of siblings to provide 
care. 
(D) Work schedule instability causes more 
work-family conflict, which increases the chance 
that a worker will be forced to leave his or her 
job, and is associated with downward mobility 
of the earnings of the worker. 
(E)(i) Relative to White workers, workers 
of color are more likely to— 
(I) have cancelled shifts; 
(II) have on-call shifts; 
(III) be involuntary part-time work-
ers; 
(IV) have trouble getting time off; 
and 
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(V) work ‘‘clopening’’ shifts, as de-
scribed in paragraph (3)(B). 
(ii) The statistics described in clause (i) re-
main true after controlling for demographics, 
human capital, worker power, firm segregation, 
and discordance with the race or ethnicity of 
the worker and the manager. Race gaps in job 
quality are greater for women of color. 
(F) Workers who receive shorter advance 
notice, who work on-call shifts, who experience 
last-minute 
shift 
cancellation 
and 
timing 
changes, or who have more volatile work hours 
are more likely to experience hunger, residential 
hardships, and greater overall economic hard-
ship. 
(7) Unpredictable and unstable work schedules 
are common in a wide range of occupations, with 
evidence of particular concentration in food service, 
retail, cleaning, hospitality, and warehouse occupa-
tions. These occupations are critically important to 
the United States economy. 
(8) Employers that have implemented fair work 
scheduling policies that allow workers to have more 
control over their work schedules, and provide more 
predictable and stable schedules, have experienced 
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significant benefits, including reductions in absentee-
ism and workforce turnover, and increased worker 
morale and engagement. For example, when Gap 
Inc. piloted strategies to make work schedules more 
stable and predictable for employees, the Gap Inc. 
stores that implemented these strategies experienced 
higher productivity and a 7 percent increase in sales, 
compared to those Gap Inc. stores that did not im-
plement these strategies. 
(9) This Act is a first step in responding to the 
needs of workers for a voice in the timing of their 
work hours and for more predictable schedules. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) BONA FIDE BUSINESS REASON.—The term 
‘‘bona fide business reason’’ means— 
(A) the identifiable burden of additional 
costs to an employer, including the cost of pro-
ductivity loss, retraining or hiring employees, or 
transferring employees from one facility to an-
other facility; 
(B) a significant detrimental effect on the 
employer’s ability to meet organizational needs 
or customer demand; 
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(C) a significant inability of the employer, 
despite best efforts, to reorganize work among 
existing (as of the date of the reorganization) 
staff; 
(D) a significant detrimental effect on 
business performance; 
(E) insufficiency of work during the peri-
ods an employee proposes to work; 
(F) the need to balance competing sched-
uling requests when it is not possible to grant 
all such requests without a significant detri-
mental effect on the employer’s ability to meet 
organizational needs; or 
(G) such other reason as may be specified 
by the Secretary of Labor (or, as applicable, the 
corresponding administrative officer specified in 
section 7(e)). 
(2) CAREER-RELATED EDUCATIONAL OR TRAIN-
ING
PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘career-related edu-
cational or training program’’ means an educational 
or training program or program of study offered by 
a public, private, or nonprofit career and technical 
education school, institution of higher education, or 
other entity that provides academic education, career 
and technical education, or training (including reme-
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