What NYC’s Latest Fair Workweek Cases Mean for Employers: Is Your Business Ready?

Recently, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) announced enforcement actions against multiple retailers for violating the city’s Fair Workweek Law. Walgreens agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution to workers, along with $163,000 in civil penalties, while Calzedonia, the parent company of lingerie retailer Intimissimi, agreed to pay more than $154,000 in restitution and more than $15,000 in civil penalties and costs.

According to the DCWP, Walgreens failed to provide employees with the required 72 hours’ advance notice of work schedules and required employees to work additional hours without the notice or consent required under the law. Calzedonia was cited for similar violations, including failing to provide advance notice of schedules, requiring employees to work additional hours without proper notice or consent, and canceling shifts without sufficient notice.

The same enforcement sweep also included penalties against employers that violated New York City’s Protected Time Off Law, bringing the total recovery across both laws to more than $2.3 million and reinforcing the city’s continued focus on workplace protections.

These cases are not about elaborate payroll fraud or intentional wage theft. They’re significant because they involve some of the most common scheduling challenges that employers face every day. 

And that’s exactly why every employer operating under Fair Workweek or predictive scheduling laws should be paying attention.

The violations weren’t complicated, but they were costly

None of the companies cited were accused of exploiting obscure loopholes or deliberately withholding wages. Instead, the violations arose from everyday scheduling decisions. Publishing schedules, filling open shifts, asking employees to work additional hours, or canceling shifts are all routine parts of retail operations. The challenge is ensuring those everyday decisions comply with Fair Workweek requirements.

What New York City’s Fair Workweek Law requires

New York City’s Fair Workweek Law includes separate requirements for retail employers and fast food employers.

Retail employers

Retail employers covered by the law are generally required to:

• Provide employees with at least 72 hours’ advance notice of their work schedules.
• Post schedules in writing and notify employees of any changes.
• Obtain employee consent before requiring them to work additional hours that weren’t included in the original schedule.
• Maintain records demonstrating compliance with scheduling requirements.

Fast food employers

Fast food employers are subject to a broader set of predictive scheduling requirements, including:

• Providing employees with 14 days’ advance notice of their work schedules.
• Paying schedule change premiums when employer-initiated changes are made after the required notice period.
• Offering additional hours to existing employees before hiring new staff, subject to certain exceptions.
• Providing a good faith estimate of expected hours and maintaining required scheduling records.

Predictive scheduling laws also exist in several cities and localities across the United States, while Oregon remains the only state with a statewide Fair Workweek law. Although each jurisdiction has its own requirements, they generally share the same goal: to give employees more predictability while placing greater responsibility on employers to manage scheduling fairly. 

Also read: Fair Workweek Laws Explained: A Guide for Employers

Most Fair Workweek violations are not intentional

No employer sets out to violate Fair Workweek laws. Beyond knowing the rules, the challenge is consistently applying them every time a schedule is created or changed.

As the recent NYC cases show, employers didn’t violate the law because it was particularly complex. They fell short because Fair Workweek requirements weren’t consistently built into the scheduling process.

A schedule is published a day late, an employee is asked to work an extra shift without documenting their consent, or a shift is canceled over text with no record of the change. Individually, these situations may seem minor. But when they don’t meet Fair Workweek requirements, they become compliance violations.

For employers operating across multiple stores or jurisdictions, keeping these processes consistent becomes even more difficult.

An operational challenge

Fair Workweek compliance is more than just a legal problem. It’s primarily an operational one. The biggest compliance risk usually happens even before payroll is processed. 

Meeting Fair Workweek requirements becomes much harder when managers don’t have enough visibility into labor demand to build schedules early enough, schedule changes are communicated informally instead of being documented, or different locations are subject to different compliance rules.

The more locations a business operates, the more opportunities there are for those processes to break down. 

Building Fair Workweek compliance into everyday scheduling

Rather than relying on manual processes or hoping managers remember every jurisdiction’s requirements, employers should look for systems that make compliance part of the scheduling process itself. 

Start with better labor forecasting

Advance notice requirements depend on publishing schedules early. 

That becomes much easier when managers can forecast labor demand using historical sales, staffing patterns, and expected business activity. Better forecasting means schedules can be built and published well before the advance notice periods. 

Prevent violations before they happen. 

Scheduling software should do more than build schedules. It should help managers identify potential compliance issues before they’re finalized—for example:

• Publishing schedules after the required notice period
• Scheduling prohibited clopening shifts
• Making schedule changes that may trigger Fair Workweek requirements
• Assigning additional hours that may require employee consent

It should also provide built-in workflows to support compliance, such as capturing employee consent and automatically recording schedule acknowledgments when they’re required.

Instead of expecting managers to remember every rule, the right system helps enforce them consistently. 

Calculate premium pay accurately

Last-minute scheduling changes are sometimes unavoidable. When they happen, employers need confidence that any required predictability pay or scheduling premiums are calculated correctly and flow directly into payroll. 

Just as importantly, every schedule change, employee acknowledgment, and consent should be automatically recorded to create an audit trail if questions arise later. 

Is your scheduling process ready for predictive scheduling laws?

Even if your business isn’t currently covered by predictive scheduling laws, it’s worth asking whether your current scheduling process could support them if they were introduced tomorrow. 

A few questions to help evaluate your process: 

• Can managers consistently publish schedules before required notice periods? 
• Do schedule changes automatically trigger compliance warnings? 
• Can you easily verify and document employee consent for schedule changes?
• Are any required scheduling premiums calculated automatically? 
• Can you produce a complete history of schedule changes if you’re audited?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” there may be gaps worth addressing before they become compliance issues.

How Workforce.com helps employers stay compliant

Effective Fair Workweek compliance goes beyond simply knowing the rules. Employers need systems that help prevent violations, correctly calculate any premiums that arise from schedule changes, and maintain the documentation needed to demonstrate compliance.

That’s why Workforce.com is designed for the critical areas of Fair Workweek compliance:

Prevention

Managers get alerted of potential violations during scheduling to help avoid common compliance pitfalls before schedules are published. 

Calculation

When schedule changes trigger premium pay requirements, Workforce.com can automatically calculate those dollar amounts and ensure they are reflected in payroll. 

Documentation

Schedule changes, employee acknowledgments, and consent records are automatically logged, giving employers the documentation they need if compliance questions arise. 

Instead of relying on manual processes, businesses can build Fair Workweek compliance directly into the way schedules are created, updated, and paid.

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Fair Workweek compliance isn’t something businesses can afford to think about only when an audit or investigation arises. The strongest compliance strategies are built into everyday operations, making it easier for managers to do the right thing and for employers to demonstrate compliance when it matters.

For businesses already operating under predictive scheduling laws, now is the time to evaluate whether existing scheduling processes are enough to meet those requirements. And for businesses expanding into new markets, building compliance into scheduling today is far easier than retrofitting processes after an investigation begins.

See how Workforce.com helps employers stay ahead of Fair Workweek compliance. Book a demo today.