The Los Angeles economy includes over 140,000 Angelenos working in the retail sector. According to a recent University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) study, eight in ten retail workers have unpredictable, last- minute, and fluctuating work weeks over which they have no control. Approximately 77 percent of retail workers receive less than one week notice of their schedules or changes to their schedules.
The unpredictability of work schedules endemic in the retail industry creates many socioeconomic burdens on workers of large retail businesses. For example, the inability to predict the number of hours retail employees will actually work or the reduction of scheduled work hours leads to income insecurity. Further, unpredictable scheduling makes it difficult for workers to arrange childcare. Forty-five percent of workers who need childcare cannot use childcare services because of erratic work schedules. Unpredictable scheduling also makes it difficult for retail workers to pursue educational goals. Forty-three percent of student retail workers missed classes due to scheduling conflicts.
Retail workers who work a store’s closing shift and then work the next day’s opening shift work what is known as “clopening” shifts. Workers scheduled for “clopening” shifts often have less than ten hours rest between shifts. At least 44 percent of retail workers have experienced “clopening” shifts. When workers do not have an adequate time of rest between shifts, they are unable to care for themselves and their families.
Many retail workers are assigned part-time schedules and face underemployment. Large retailers often maintain a 24-hour window of shopping time, which requires additional workers. When retail employers have an increased demand for work, some retailers choose to hire additional part-time or temporary workers instead of offering the additional hours to their existing part-time workers. The UCLA study found that over 70,000 retail workers desire more hours and the majority of them want to work forty hours or more each week.
Cities and states across the country have responded to a growing call for a more predictable work week. Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, and Oregon have adopted laws that protect working families by ensuring stable and predictable work hours, opportunities for additional work hours, healthier work weeks with adequate rest, and a greater voice in deciding when and how many hours to work.
The City of Los Angeles has consistently championed its workers by adopting laws designed to protect workers’ rights and improve their socioeconomic status. For example, the City has adopted the Minimum Wage and the Living Wage Ordinances, the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance, the First Source Hiring Ordinance, and various Worker Retention Ordinances.
The City, as a provider of social services, has a significant interest in the promotion of improved working conditions and better wages for retail workers. This ordinance seeks to promote the health, safety, and welfare of retail workers in the City by providing them with a more predictable work schedule that ensures stability for themselves and their families and the opportunity to work more hours. Retail workers that are rested, able to plan for childcare, and rely less on the City’s social services benefit the City.