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Note: This feature actively rolling out across our product. If you do not yet have access to it and are interested in our Fair Workweek offering, please fill in this form. |
- Background knowledge
- Who is covered by the NYC Fair Workweek Law in Fast Food?
- What are Fair Workweek Requirements and how can Deputy help?
Background knowledge
This article assumes you have read these general articles on Fair Workweek:
You can also find more information about New York City Fast Food Fair Workweek here:
Note: If team members clock in and out using the Deputy Kiosk for iPad or Deputy Time Clock for Android, make sure these apps have been updated to the latest versions. Fair Workweek will only be supported on iOS Kiosk version 5.3.7 and Android Time Clock version 0.11.0 and beyond.
Who is covered by the NYC Fair Workweek Law in Fast Food?
Fast Food Chains (including Franchises) in New York City with the following characteristics are covered by these laws:
- 30+ locations nationwide
- If the total number of a franchise brand’s fast food establishments is greater than 30, separately owned franchises must comply with the law.
For guidance on whether your business’s employees are covered by these protections, please consult with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) for professional guidance, or read the FAQ.
What are Fair Workweek requirements and how can Deputy help?
Regular schedule
The regular schedule is aimed at giving employees a set baseline schedule that they can rely on. It must be provided to the employee at the time of hire, and an updated copy must be provided to the employee anytime there is a long-term change to the regular work schedule.
The regular schedule must include the days, times and locations that an employee can expect to work each week, the total number of hours per week they should expect to work, and the date the regular schedule takes effect.
Unless an exception applies, the employer must seek employee consent to reduce total hours on their regular work schedule by more than 15%. Exceptions may include schedule reductions for just cause or bona fide economic reasons.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows you to provide a regular schedule to your team members through our regular working hours feature. Read more at:
Advanced notice for scheduling
Fair Workweek requires employers to provide employees with their work schedules in advance. For covered New York Fast Food businesses, the work schedule must be provided at least 14 days in advance of the first day on the schedule.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows managers to schedule shifts well into the future - and when published, employees will always have access to their shifts, allowing them to plan ahead. Read more at:
Schedule change and regular schedule variance consent
Subject to limited exceptions, employers cannot add more than 15 minutes to an employee’s work schedule without their consent unless the change is made more than 14 days before the first day on the work schedule. Consent must be 100% voluntary.
This includes situations such as:
- adding more than 15min of time to a shift or
- changing the day or time of a shift by 15min or
- requests to stay more than 15 minutes late to cover rush or
- request to cover for another employee who called out sick.
Additionally, employers cannot give an employee a work schedule that is different from their baseline regular schedule by more than 15% over the whole workweek without their consent.
These situations count as differences between the regular schedule and the work schedule:
- adding time to or reducing time from a shift or
- changing the day, time or location of a shift or
- scheduling a shift in the work schedule that is not in the regular schedule or
- not scheduling a shift that is on the regular schedule.
Calculation of the 15% difference is based on the whole regular schedule over a workweek and not on individual shifts.
To get a better understanding of how regular schedule variance is calculated, refer to DCWP's schedule difference calculator tool.
Consent must be date and time stamped, documented in writing, or electronically and must reference the specific shift the employee is consenting to change.
How can Deputy help?
- When scheduling in Deputy with consent enabled, scheduling managers will be warned if they have created or changed a shift that may require consent from the team member and may trigger a pay premium.
- Note: to minimise occurrences of scheduling or changing shifts that trigger consent or incur pay premiums, scheduling managers are reminded that to comply with legislation, they need to publish new or changed shifts 14 days before the beginning of the work period in which the shift occurs (not just 14 days before the start of the shift itself).
- In the event of last-minute unscheduled changes to shifts, consent is also captured through the use of shift questions at clock in and out. Shift questions are used to capture consent ahead of time for changed shifts, when an employee clocks in early or late, or to attest to missed meal and rest breaks. These get recorded in the timesheet for audit purposes. If you have assigned the New York Fair Workweek - Fast Food pay rate to your team member, we automatically provide attestation questions for the following scenarios:
- Unscheduled Shift
- Early In
- Early Out
- Late In
- Late Out
Note: Deputy may still ask team members to consent to changes to the schedule that are 15 minutes or less in duration however, predictability premiums will only be applied if the shift change totals in excess of 15 minutes.
Predictability pay for schedule changes
Fair Workweek laws require employees to be paid premium payments in addition to their normal wages for most changes to the published work schedule. This is aimed at rewarding employees who are flexible and as a disincentive to businesses for making last-minute changes.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy pay rates can take the stress out of manually calculating premium payments by automatically suggesting premiums based on changes made to the schedule, allowing direct export straight to your payroll provider.
The New York City Fast Food Fair Workweek pay rate is available in both premium and enterprise Deputy accounts in the pay rates section of your team member's profile.
For more information on exactly how premiums are calculated using this pay rate, see New York City Fair Workweek Fast Food pay rate.
Right to rest (Clopening)
"Clopening" shifts are shifts where an employee works late one night and then works early the next morning.
New York City’s covered fast food employees are required to have at least 11 hours of rest between shifts across two work days. Clopening shifts are banned unless the employee consents to work the shift and is paid extra pay called clopening pay.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy will alert the manager when they have scheduled a team member on a clopening shift by providing a warning that this shift may incur a clopening pay premium. If the manager still proceeds to schedule the shift, then the team member will be asked to consent to work this shift. Read more at
Access to hours
Fair Workweek laws also state that available shifts must be offered to existing part-time employees before hiring new ones. This allows part-time employees to become full-time if they wish. (NYC also requires those shifts to be offered to employees who have been discharged for economic reasons before hiring new employees.)
Open shifts must be posted in writing and include:
- The shifts being offered
- Their length
- Their schedule
- The process employees must undergo to request picking up the new shifts
- The criteria the employer will use to distribute the shifts
How can Deputy help?
Deputy allows managers to make open shifts that still require manager approval. We recommend using this feature to offer the shift to all participants, at which point the manager can decide on who fills it based on their own criteria (seniority, tenure, cost, etc).
We recommend posting these criteria and processes in the News Feed of Deputy so that all employees can see this, with a confirmation message so they can confirm they know the process.
Recordkeeping
Fair Workweek requires key information to be stored for several years that shows compliance with the Fair Workweek laws. This includes copies of regular schedules, work schedules, timesheets, consents to schedule changes, records of all schedule changes, records of predictability pay, clopenings and clopening pay, and proof that open shifts were offered to current employees.
How can Deputy help?
Deputy will electronically store records saved in the system, and in the event of an audit can provide employers with a copy of their records on request. Employers may also create Fair Workweek specific reports within Deputy to provide to auditors.