Oregon Predictive Scheduling Law: Notice, Pay, and Rest Rules

Oregon’s predictive scheduling law, formally the Fair Work Week Act, requires large retail, hospitality, and food service employers to give workers a written schedule 14 days in advance, pay extra when they change it late, and leave at least 10 hours between shifts. The rules live in ORS 653.412 through 653.485 and are enforced by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.¹ There is no federal equivalent, so whether these protections apply to you depends entirely on your employer’s size and industry.

Who the Law Covers

The Act applies to employees of retail, hospitality, or food service employers with at least 500 employees worldwide. The count is based on the average number of employees working each day during at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and it includes everyone on the payroll nationwide, not just workers in Oregon.²

Separate companies that function as a single operation can be treated as one employer under an “integrated enterprise” analysis. The factors include how interrelated the companies’ operations are, whether they share management, how centralized their control over labor decisions is, and whether they have common ownership or financial control.² Franchises affiliated under the same trade name are evaluated the same way, so a franchise location with 30 employees can still be covered if the parent brand employs 500 across all locations.

If you work for a smaller business, or in an industry outside retail, hospitality, and food service, these scheduling rules do not apply to your employer.

The Good Faith Estimate You Should Get Before You Start

Before your first day, your employer must give you a written good faith estimate of your expected schedule. It has to include the median number of hours you can expect in an average month, whether the employer uses a voluntary standby list, and whether you might be scheduled for on-call shifts.³ It must be provided in the language your employer normally uses to communicate with you.⁴

The estimate is not a guaranteed schedule. It is a projection to help you gauge your income and plan around your work. But it sets a baseline, and actual hours that look nothing like the estimate can factor into a complaint about good faith compliance.

Fourteen Days’ Written Notice of Your Schedule

Your employer must provide your written work schedule at least 14 calendar days before the first day it covers.⁵ The schedule can be posted in a visible spot at work or sent electronically through email, an app, or text. You need to be able to actually access it.

If a manager tries to add a shift after the 14-day window closes, you can say no. The statute lets you decline any work shift that was not included in the written schedule you already received.⁵ You cannot be punished for declining, and the employer must notify you of any proposed changes through a direct method like a phone call, text, email, or in-person conversation.

Predictivity Pay When Your Schedule Changes

When your employer changes your schedule after the 14-day notice period, you are owed extra compensation called predictivity pay. The amount depends on the type of change.

Changes that add work or move your hours without reducing them trigger one extra hour of pay at your regular rate. That covers adding more than 30 minutes to an existing shift, moving the start or end time of a shift without cutting total hours, and scheduling an additional shift or on-call shift that was not in the original schedule.⁶

Changes that reduce or eliminate your hours trigger half-time pay for every scheduled hour you lose. That covers subtracting hours from a shift before or after you report, moving the start or end time in a way that shortens the shift, canceling a shift entirely, and scheduling you on-call but never asking you to come in. So if a six-hour shift gets canceled, you are owed three hours of pay at your regular rate even though you did not work.⁶ These payments should appear on your regular paycheck.

When Predictivity Pay Is Not Owed

The law carves out several situations where no extra pay is owed, even if the schedule changes inside the 14-day window:

The employer moves your start or end time by 30 minutes or less.
You asked in writing for different hours, added shifts, or dropped shifts.
You and a coworker voluntarily swapped shifts. The employer can require preapproval but cannot arrange the swap for you.
You are on the voluntary standby list and agreed to pick up additional hours.
The employer subtracted hours for documented just-cause disciplinary reasons.
The shift cannot happen because of threats to safety, utility failures, or natural disasters outside the employer’s control.
The employer needs extra coverage because of unanticipated customer needs or unexpected absences, has already exhausted the standby list, and you consent in writing to work the additional hours.

⁶

The employee-requested-change exception is the one that comes up most often. If you ask your manager to swap your Tuesday for a Thursday, the change does not trigger predictivity pay, but only if you put the request in writing. A verbal ask is not enough.

Ten Hours of Rest Between Shifts

Oregon prohibits employers from scheduling you to work with fewer than 10 hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next. This targets the “clopening” pattern where a worker closes a restaurant at midnight and is expected back at 6 a.m. for an opening shift.⁷

You can agree to work during that rest window, but the employer cannot pressure you into it. If you do consent, you earn time-and-a-half pay for every hour that falls within the 10-hour rest period.⁷ If you decline, that decision is protected and the employer cannot retaliate.

The Voluntary Standby List

Employers can keep a standby list of workers who are willing to pick up extra shifts when unexpected needs come up. Joining must be genuinely voluntary. The employer must tell you in writing that the list is optional, how you will be notified of available hours, and that you can turn down any hours offered without consequences.⁸

The tradeoff is simple: if you are on the standby list and accept additional hours, no predictivity pay is owed for that schedule change. You can ask to be removed from the list at any time, and the employer cannot punish you for leaving it or for declining hours offered through it.⁸ Employers caught coercing workers onto the list face penalties of up to $2,000 per violation.

Retaliation and How to File a Complaint

The Fair Work Week Act prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who exercise any right under the law. That includes declining a shift added after the 14-day window, refusing to work during a rest period, leaving the standby list, or asking questions about how the law works.⁹ Retaliation covers more than termination. Cutting hours, changing someone’s position, or creating a hostile environment because they asserted a scheduling right all qualify.

If you think your employer is violating the law, you can file a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries through BOLI’s website.¹

Penalties Employers Face

BOLI can assess civil penalties of $1,000 per violation for failures tied to coverage requirements, the standby list, advance scheduling notice, rest periods, predictivity pay, record-keeping, and retaliation. Coercing an employee onto the voluntary standby list carries a penalty of up to $2,000 per violation.¹⁰ Each violation counts as a separate offense, and continuing violations accrue daily.

1
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Predictive Scheduling
2
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 653.422 – Covered Employees; Integrated Enterprises; Rules
3
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Administrative Code 839-026-0020 – Good Faith Estimate of Work Schedule
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.428 – Good Faith Estimate of Work Schedule
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.436 – Advance Notice of Work Schedule
6
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.455 – Compensation for Work Schedule Changes; Exceptions
7
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.442 – Right to Rest Between Work Shifts
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 653.432 – Voluntary Standby List
9
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.470 – Retaliation Prohibited
10
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 653.480 – Enforcement; Right of Action; Penalties