Chicago Recalibrates Fair Workweek Rules, Which Took Effect June 1

Employers in Chicago: new rules may require your attention, especially if you employ workers in cooperation with another employer or operate within any of the industries covered by the city’s Fair Workweek Ordinance.

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) Office of Labor Standards (OLS) adopted new rules for administering Chicago’s Fair Workweek and Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinances.

The new rules were published on May 18, 2026, and went into effect on June 1, 2026. A separate blog post addressing the new rules to the Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance can be found here. Without re-hashing all the details about compliance obligations under the Fair Workweek Ordinance, here’s a summary of what’s important to know as these rules go into force.

Key Changes to Fair Workweek Ordinance Rules

The Chicago Fair Workweek (FWW) Ordinance is a predictive scheduling law. It provides covered employees with the right to advance notice of their work schedules, a right to decline schedule changes or work hours, and supplemental pay for shift changes (see BACP guidance). However, it does not apply to all employment situations.

Rather, this law applies only to specified workers in covered industries (building services, health care, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, and warehouse services). To be a “covered employee” under the FWW Ordinance, a worker must perform the majority of their work within the City of Chicago and earn below an annually adjusted threshold. Currently, that threshold is a maximum pay rate of $32.60 per hour or income at or below $62,561.90 per year.

Covered employers from those industries are those that employ 100 or more employees globally (or 250, if not-for-profit, or 250 and 30 locations, for restaurants), at least 50 of whom are covered employees.

BACP last published rules for the FWW Ordinance in 2020. In contrast to the new rules for the PL/PSSL Ordinance, the updates to regulations implementing the FWW Ordinance (“FWW Rules”) are not primarily ministerial. Rather, the new FWW Rules add significant details to covered employers’ obligations.

More Details Required in Employers’ Good Faith Estimates of Work Schedules

At the time of hire, employers must provide covered employees with a good faith estimate of their work schedule, which must now include:

1. The estimated number of hours the employee will work each week;
2. The days of the week the employee should expect to work;
3. The times or shifts the employee should expect to work;
4. The location(s) where the employee should expect to work;
5. Whether the employee should expect to work any on-call shifts.

The new rules also provide examples of compliant and non-compliant good faith estimates.

New Details Required in Advance Work Schedule Notifications

• Work schedules must be time-stamped with the date and time of posting and clearly indicate:

1. The start and end dates of the workweek;
2. The schedule of hours, days, times, and location(s) that employees are scheduled to work, including any on-call shifts;
3. The names of all covered employees who work at the locations listed, regardless of whether they are scheduled to work that week;
4. The first initial and full last names of covered employees on a work schedule.

• If a covered employee is returning from a leave of absence, an employer must provide the employee a written work schedule at least fourteen (14) days before that employee’s first day on any new schedule.
• Additional rules explain scheduling requirements for new hires and for employees who are transferred, promoted, or re-assigned.

On-Call Shifts Must Be Listed in Advanced Work Schedules

• “On-Call Shifts” are now defined in the Rules to mean any shift requiring an employee to either contact the employer or be contacted to learn whether to report to work.
• All anticipated On-Call shifts must now be included in the advance work schedules required under the FWW Ordinance.

Employees May Not Be Entitled to Predictability Pay When They Voluntarily Request a Schedule Change

• As before, employers are required to post a work schedule no later than 14 days before the first day of any new schedule. If changes to the date and time of a covered employee’s schedule are made after this deadline, but with no loss of hours, the employee must be paid one hour of Predictability Pay for every impacted shift.
• Predictability Pay must be paid no later than the covered employee’s next pay day and must be separately noted on the pay stub or other written documentation provided to the employee. Employers do not need to provide Predictability Pay when adding or subtracting a covered employee’s hours if the schedule changes are based on voluntary requests initiated by the employee. Voluntary changes include:

1. Paid leave or Paid Sick Leave usage
2. Paid time off
3. Vacation
4. Leave under another leave policy provided by the employer.

• To qualify for the Predictability Pay exemption, an employer must obtain the employee’s voluntary change request in writing.

Right to Rest Rules Require Higher Pay for Shifts Less Than 10 Hours Apart, Regardless of an Employee’s Consent to Work

• If a covered employee works consecutive shifts separated by fewer than 10 hours, they must be paid 1.25 times their rate for their subsequent shift, regardless of whether they requested or consented to work those shifts. Further, a double shift must be paid at a 1.25 rate in all instances. The rules expressly coordinate the Right to Rest premium with federal and state overtime obligations: hours within a Right to Rest shift that exceed 40 in the workweek must be paid at the IMWL overtime rate (1.5x) rather than 1.25x, so the two rates apply to different hours and operate in tandem. Employers should also note that the premium component of the Right to Rest pay is likely includable in the FLSA "regular rate" for overtime purposes, as it likely does not qualify for an exclusion. This means that the Right to Rest premiums earned during a workweek can modestly elevate the FLSA overtime base for that workweek. Payroll systems should be configured accordingly.
• Written voluntary consent to work adjacent shifts can be set for an ongoing basis. However, a covered employee may revoke consent at any time.

Right to Rest premiums must be paid no later than the next pay day and must be separately noted on a pay stub or another form of written documentation provided to the Employee.

Removal of Extraneous Enforcement Provisions

• The new rules exclude prior language describing the BACP Commissioner’s subpoena powers. These are already set forth in the Municipal Code of Chicago.
• OLS also deleted detailed language from the 2020 version that explained procedures for complaints about alleged FWW Ordinance violations.
• BACP remains authorized to enforce the FWW Ordinance, which also expressly authorizes employees to initiate a civil lawsuit after exhausting administrative remedies described in the law.

What Should Employers Do?

Chicago employers subject to the FWW Ordinance should review these new rules with Human Resources and their payroll vendors, if applicable, to ensure compliance as applicable. Some employers may need to adjust practices to properly document and administer Predictability Pay and Right to Rest Pay under the updated Ordinance.

Epstein Becker Green Staff Attorney Elizabeth A. Ledkovsky contributed to this update.