Congress mandates advance notice and pay for unpredictable work schedules

What it does

This bill gives employees the right to request flexible work schedules without retaliation and requires employers to consider those requests in good faith. For workers in retail, food service, hospitality, cleaning, and warehouse jobs, it mandates 14 days' advance notice of schedules, requires employers to pay extra compensation when schedules change with less notice, and guarantees an 11-hour rest period between shifts. Employers with 15+ employees are covered; smaller employers are exempt.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a labor-standards expansion: it creates affirmative rights for employees to request schedule changes, mandates advance notice and compensation for covered sectors, and prohibits retaliation. This is substantive worker protection, not a narrow carve-out or subsidy.

What the text implies

• Covered sector employees gain a private right of action with liquidated damages (double recovery), attorney fees, and expert witness fees—creating a powerful enforcement mechanism that may incentivize litigation over negotiation.
• The 'bona fide business reason' standard in Section 2(1) is broad and employer-friendly (includes 'insufficiency of work' and 'balancing competing requests'), potentially allowing denials of schedule-change requests even when operationally feasible.
• Predictability pay ($75/day for late notice, 1.5x pay for short rest periods) may be passed to consumers via price increases in retail and food service, with uncertain incidence on low-income customers.
• The bill applies only to employers with 15+ employees; smaller employers and gig platforms are exempt, creating a two-tier labor market and potential incentive to stay below the threshold.
• Section 12 allows collective bargaining agreements to waive the entire act, potentially creating a carve-out for unionized workers that undermines statutory protections for non-union workers in the same sector.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

Low-wage workers in targeted sectors gain enforceable rights to predictable schedules, advance notice, and compensation for last-minute changes—addressing documented harms to childcare stability, health, and financial security. Employers retain broad discretion to deny requests for legitimate business reasons, limiting the burden on small operations.

Who stands to gain

• Retail workers and food service workers (wage increases, predictability pay, rest compensation)
• Hospitality and warehouse workers (advance notice, schedule stability)
• Labor unions (potential organizing tool; collective bargaining carve-out)
• Employment litigation bar (private right of action with attorney fees and liquidated damages)

Named in the bill

Department of Labor / Secretary of Labor, Retail sector (41-1010, 41-2000 SOC codes), Food service sector (35-0000 SOC codes), Hospitality establishments (hotels, motels, inns), Warehouse establishments, Cleaning occupations (37-2011, 37-2012, 37-2019 SOC codes), Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, Merit Systems Protection Board, Office of Personnel Management, Library of Congress, Government Accountability Office, Bureau of Labor Statistics — and 1 more

Where it stands

20 cosponsors: 19 Democrats, 1 Independents.

• Dec 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Dec 17, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $75,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 57 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Elizabeth Warren, the sponsor, reported $19,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Women's Law Center Action Fund — $75,000 on 1 filing

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.