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1/18 New paper from me & Katherine Guyot on unpredictable work hours. Bottom line is that workers need more control of their time - or "time sovereignty" - and more predictability. Summary thread: https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
2/18 Motivation: "It matters not only how many hours people work, but how much control they have over them. Irregular work hours lead to income volatility for hourly wage workers, increasing the difficulty of making ends meet." https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
3/18 “Just-in-time” scheduling puts workers in a vulnerable financial position—both by destabilizing earnings & disrupting access to safety net programs—& make it difficult to arrange childcare, attend school or pick up a 2nd job" @NancyCauthen @Demos_Org https://bit.ly/2E7xdYu
4/18 Two in five wage and salary workers know their schedules less than one month in advance, esp men, workers of color, and those with less education: https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
5/18 Workers of color in retail & food services are 10%-20% more likely to face unpredictable scheduling, including on-call shifts, "clopenings" (back-to-back closing and opening shifts separated by < 11 hours), involuntary PT work." https://bit.ly/2Q4nIM0 cc @bl_hardy
6/18 3 in 4 workers in leisure & hosp. industry receive schedules less than 1 month in advance, and most have fewer than 2 weeks’ notice. Construction & agric. workers are particularly likely to receive their schedules less than 1 week in advance. https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
7/18 "Just-in-time scheduling cuts labor costs in the short run, since businesses only have to pay for the workers they need at the moment. But they shift these costs onto workers by destabilizing work schedules and pay." https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
8/18 Service-sector workers with a 50% swing in work hours are at a 13% higher risk of hunger hardship and an 11% higher risk of residential hardship than those with steady hours. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122418823184?journalCode=asra#articleShareContainer https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
9/18 Most people report that they would prefer to have a predictable income. More than 3/4 U.S. Financial Diaries research study say that financial stability is more important than “moving up the income ladder.” @KarenDynan https://www.usfinancialdiaries.org/issue1-spikes https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
10/18 To make matters worse, many safety net programs come with work requirements that aren’t compatible with volatile work hours. For instance, some TANF and SNAP recipients are required to work a minimum number of hours per week. @laurenlbauer https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
11/18 Young children of U.S. food and retail workers subject to last-minute scheduling go an average of 15 days per year without childcare or supervision compared to 9 days for those who are not subject to last-minute scheduling. Data from @equitablegrowth https://shift.hks.harvard.edu/its-about-time-how-work-schedule-instability-matters-for-workers-families-and-racial-inequality/
12/18 Research suggests unpredictable work schedules are associated with negative behavioral outcomes for children: https://shift.hks.harvard.edu/its-about-time-how-work-schedule-instability-matters-for-workers-families-and-racial-inequality/
13/18 This report from @HBoushey @ansell has the killer facts on economic consequences of lack of time sovereignty https://equitablegrowth.org/working-by-the-hour-the-economic-consequences-of-unpredictable-scheduling-practices/
14/18 Fair scheduling legislation enacted in the state of Oregon & cities such as San Francisco, New York, and Seattle. Many of these laws mandate that employers pay workers for last-minute scheduling changes (“predictability pay”) and for on-call shifts. https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/CityAuditor/auditreports/SSO_EvaluationYear1Report_122019.pdf
15/18 Workers should not have to relinquish control over their time..Reasonable constraints on just-in-time scheduling practices would improve workers’ well-being. They may also benefit companies in the long run by improving morale and reducing turnover. https://brook.gs/323ZMOh
16/18 As more families rely on more than one earner, the politics of time are becoming as important in some ways as the politics of money. See also @isawhill on the Time Squeeze on the middle class https://brook.gs/31PIg0h
17/18 Uncertainty is bad for most workers; it may be bad for business too. When @Gap gave workers more notice, sales in those stores rose by 7% - work from @JoanCWilliams et al https://worklifelaw.org/publications/Stable-Scheduling-Study-Report.pdf
