Working Paper: NBER ID: w29792
Authors: Elizabeth Ananat; Anna Gassman-Pines; John Fitzhenley II
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: Fair Workweek Ordinance; schedule unpredictability; low-wage workers; worker wellbeing; policy effects
JEL Codes: I18; J08
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) (J38) | schedule unpredictability (C41) |
| Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) (J38) | number of days worked by parents (J22) |
| Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) (J38) | hours worked per day (J38) |
| number of days worked by parents (J22) | total weekly hours (J22) |
| Emeryville Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) (J38) | parent wellbeing (I31) |
| parent wellbeing (I31) | sleep quality (I12) |