Updates to Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance Expand Employer Obligations

Takeaways

• Chicago’s updated Fair Workweek Ordinance rules (effective 06.01.26) expand and clarify employer obligations across scheduling, predictability pay, recordkeeping and more.
• The rules add detailed compliance requirements, including for good faith estimates and work schedules.
• They also increase administrative and compliance burdens. Employers should consider reviewing their policies and procedures to ensure compliance.

Related links

• Chicago Fair Workweek Rules (effective 06.01.26) 
• Fair Workweek Rules – Summary of Changes

Article

Effective June 1, 2026, updated the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance (FWO) rules require substantive changes to covered employers’ scheduling, predictability pay, access to hours, right-to-rest practices and recordkeeping obligations.

The FWO requires large employers in the building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, restaurant, retail, and warehouse services industries to provide workers with at least two weeks’ advance notice of their work schedules and compensate workers for last-minute changes. Covered employers are those that employ more than 100 employees globally (or 250 employees globally, in the case of not-for-profit corporations), have at least 50 covered employees, and are primarily engaged in a covered industry.

Chicago’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS) has issued the revised rules and a summary of changes.

Definition of “Week”

The FWO requires that an employer posts each covered employee’s schedule at least 14 calendar days before the start of the schedule.

The new rules clarify the definition of week for purposes of this scheduling requirement. Consistent with the Fair Labor Standards Act, the rules define a week as any seven consecutive 24-hour periods that may begin on any day of the week and at any hour.

Coverage Clarifications

The revisions clarify how OLS will determine employer size and number of covered employees. This is an area in which the OLS had not previously provided guidance.

For existing employers, the OLS will use the average employee count over a 12-month period. For new employers, it will use the average employee count over the previous 90 days.

The rules contain new requirements for calculating whether an employee spends the majority of time at work for an employer while physically present in the City of Chicago. To do so, OLS will analyze the total number of hours worked by an employee in and out of Chicago in the previous 90 days.

Finally, the rules clarify that the “single unitary business group” test previously used to aggregate employees across separate but related entities also will apply to determining the global number of locations for employers in the restaurant industry.

Good Faith Estimate Requirements

The FWO requires employers to provide a good faith estimate in writing of the covered employees’ projected days and hours of work for the first 90 days of employment.

The revised regulations require that the good faith estimate include the following:

• Estimated weekly hours; 
• Expected workdays; 
• Expected times or shifts; 
• Expected work location or locations; and 
• Whether the employee should expect to work any on-call shifts.

Importantly, they require that the good faith estimate include the date on which it was provided to the covered employee.

The new regulations also contain examples of good faith estimates the OLS has determined are or are not sufficient to comply with the rules.

Scheduling Requirements

The FWO requires employers to post work schedules for covered employees at least 14 days before the first day of the workweek.

The new rules clarify that every schedule must be time-stamped with its date and time of posting. Schedules must clearly indicate the week covered, the hours, days, times, and locations employees are scheduled to work, including on-call shifts, and the names of all covered employees who work at that location, regardless of whether they are scheduled during that week.

The revisions also add practical scheduling provisions for certain employee-status changes. For new hires and employees returning from a leave of absence, the employer may provide a written work schedule that runs through the last date of the currently posted work schedule. Similarly, for employees who are transferred, promoted, or assigned to a new job classification, the employer may provide a written work schedule that runs through the last date of the currently posted work schedule in effect at the time of the change.

Predictability Pay, Access to Hours

The updated FWO rules clarify that predictability pay is not needed for voluntary changes requested by the covered employee. This exemption includes use of paid leave, paid sick leave, paid time off, vacation, other employer leave policies, or mutually agreed shift trades or coverage agreements. However, the new regulations require that any voluntary change requests must be in writing to qualify for exception from predictability pay. Employers should ensure that they implement processes to document any voluntary change in writing.

The revised rules also clarify that, although the regular rate for purposes of calculating predictability pay excludes overtime, holiday pay, and other premium rates, the regular rate includes differential rates that are intended to compensate for working under differing conditions such as shift premium.

Finally, the new rules require that predictability pay be paid no later than the next payday and must be separately noted on a wage stub or other documentation provided to the employee. They also clarify that predictability pay does not count as an hour of work and is not credited toward accumulation of paid sick leave or paid leave under the Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

Offers of Additional Hours, Right-to-Rest

The FWO requires employers to first offer additional shifts of work to existing covered employees and then to seasonal or temporary workers who have worked for the employer for at least two weeks.

The new regulations add robust requirements for how these offers of additional shifts must occur. Employers must provide written notice of the offer of additional shifts to existing covered employees. These written notices must contain the following:

• Location; 
• Start and end times; 
• Whether the shift is temporary or recurring;
• Specific dates for which coverage is needed, if temporary;
• Required qualifications and any training that will be provided; and 
• Process through which covered employees must notify the employer of their acceptance of the additional shifts, including a specific date and time deadline for accepting the shifts.

Employers are not required to pay predictability pay for any shifts accepted through this process.

The FWO requires that a covered employee consent to working with fewer than 10 hours of rest after the end of the previous day’s shift. Previously, a covered employee must consent to each such instance. The new regulations clarify that consent can be situational or ongoing, and the covered employee may revoke consent at any time.

The revisions also add provisions on double-shifts and split-shifts and require right-to-rest pay to be paid by the next payday and separately noted on a wage stub or other written documentation.

Posting, Records

The updated rules add examples of acceptable posting locations, including bulletin boards, breakrooms or lunchrooms, internal communication channels with routine or scheduled display on a monitor or TV screen, and swipe-in locations.

They also add to the existing recordkeeping requirements by specifying that employers must maintain records showing whether a covered employee receives tips or performs both tipped and non-tipped duties.

Next Steps

Employers with covered employees may want to review their policies and procedures, including:

• Onboarding materials; 
• Good faith estimate forms; 
• Schedule-posting practices; 
• Predictability-pay processes; 
• Wage-stub formatting; 
• Right-to-rest consent procedures; and 
• Recordkeeping practices.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney.