By Elaine Zundl

Women now hold more payroll jobs than men, and mothers are working more hours than ever before. Unfortunately, many of the industries where women are gaining ground rely on scheduling policies linked to stress and economic instability, disrupting the routines needed to care for children and family members.

In a survey of 30,000 workers at 120 of the largest retail and food-service companies in the United States, researchers found that 80% of workers have little to no input regarding their schedules and 69% are required to be on-call to work whenever needed. In many cases, employees must report to work if the boss calls that morning. This makes it enormously difficult to schedule childcare, doctor’s visits, and other appointments.

The Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University conducted focus groups with New Jersey women to understand how they navigate these challenges. Women described their schedules changing multiple times after they were posted, or being asked at the last minute to work longer hours. Sometimes this resulted in women closing the store late at night and then reporting back to work first thing in the morning, a practice called “clopening.” One participant described her situation like this:

“If I have an issue or need time off it is always a big problem, but if they need something last minute, I have to drop everything. One week we were notified that the schedule changed three times and that we should make sure to check it.”

Unpredictable scheduling also has negative economic effects. Women are unable to plan and budget when they don’t know how many hours they will be working on a week-to-week basis. Career advancement is also stymied. Participants in our study said they were scolded for having one or two days per week that they were consistently unavailable, making it impossible to schedule classes or to study.

“I work at a big box retailer, and they make all coworkers fill out an availability form. And depending on what department you work in, there is a required number of hours… They repeatedly make you fill it out again until it meets the hours they want.”

There is also reason to believe that these practices lead to increased discrimination and harassment. In their study, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that women of color are 18% more likely to report schedule instability.

In our Rutgers focus groups, some women reported managers and supervisors using their authority over schedules to pressure women into accepting a culture of bullying and sexual harassment. Women feared that if they complained, managers would retaliate by cutting work hours or adding shifts when they cannot work.

Legislators and employers are starting to experiment with solutions to this problem. Disney and others have ended “on-call” scheduling. Gap Inc. worked with University of Chicago researchers to pilot a stable-scheduling program for their employees. At the end of the study, sales and worker productivity increased, and workers were pleased they received a requested minimum number of hours.

Legislation mandating advance notice of schedules and a guaranteed number of hours has passed in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Oregon became the first state to pass statewide fair scheduling legislation, and New Jersey could be next.

Senator Loretta Weinberg is introducing legislation that would require employers to give all workers two weeks of advanced notice on their schedule, 11 hours of rest between shifts, and a guaranteed number of hours “on-call” hours. The bill — which has several Assembly sponsors — would require employers to make a good-faith effort to ensure current workers have enough hours before new workers are hired. Workers would have the right to sue for violations, even if they have signed a mandatory arbitration agreement.

Increasing worker driven flexibility in the fastest-growing sectors in the United States is important for gender and racial equality. It ensures that workers can take time off to keep themselves and their families healthy while also stabilizing their work hours, and ultimately their paychecks.

Elaine Zundl is the research director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

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