Predictable scheduling laws also differ in the level of advance notice they require firms to inform their workers about their schedules. States including Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, and Tennessee even prohibit jurisdictions within the states from passing predictable scheduling laws. Indeed, such policies have received strong resistance from employers in the service and retail sectors and are still pending or have failed to pass in many cities and states across the U.S. Service firms, especially those in the retail, food, and hospitability industries, argue that such requirements remove the staffing flexibility they need to operate their businesses effectively, which may lead to bankruptcy and eventually loss of jobs. Some versions of such laws, (e.g., the ones in New York City, Seattle and Emeryville, California), also require employers to offer part-time workers the chance to increase their hours before adding new staff (Wolfe et al 2018). Since 2014, one state ( Oregon) and multiple cities (e.g., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Emeryville, California), have passed various forms of “predictive scheduling laws,” sometimes also referred to as “fair workweek laws.” In general, they require employers to post work schedules in advance and provide additional pay for any last-minute schedule changes. Recent local and state policies aim to reduce this practice. In short, firms have been using JIT scheduling to transfer business risks to their employees.

While JIT scheduling can be effective in reducing firms’ labor costs, it also leads to highly unpredictable and fluctuating schedules for workers, which negatively impact their quality of life, especially among low-income workers. This helps them reduce the labor hours needed and thus labor cost (Terwiesch and Cachon 2012).

By using just-in-time scheduling, service firms mitigate the uncertainty they often face in customer demand and employee no-shows.

As firms try to strike that balance, many-especially those in the service and retail sectors-practice “just-in-time” (JIT) scheduling, which entails managers scheduling their employees “on the fly” based on immediate workplace needs. Having just enough (but not too many) workers on hand is essential to balancing customer service and profitability. Unpredictable and unstable schedules are so prevalent in service businesses, because labor accounts for a significant part of the operating cost of service businesses, especially in retail, food, and hospitality services.

Intime scheduling