Seattle Secure Scheduling: 14-day notice + predictability pay.
Seattle's Secure Scheduling Ordinance (in effect since July 1, 2017) requires covered employers to provide 14-day advance written schedules. Coverage: retail or food service employers with 500+ employees worldwide (full-service restaurants also need 40+ locations worldwide). Schedule changes inside the 14-day window trigger predictability pay: 1 hour of pay for added/changed hours, half-pay for hours subtracted with less than 14 days notice. Workers must get 10 hours rest between shifts (clopening) or be paid 1.5× for hours within the gap. Employers must offer additional hours to existing part-time workers before hiring new staff.
Seattle Secure Scheduling Workflow
Enforces 14-day advance schedule publishing, calculates predictability pay for changes, blocks under-10-hour clopening shifts, surfaces hours-offered-first opportunities to existing workers.
What those rules do as Seattle schedules are built.
The hero card configuration: Block on under-notice, Critical on pay calc, Avoid on clopening, Flag on hours-offered.
When a manager attempts to publish or modify a schedule for a covered Seattle worker with less than 14 days advance notice, the publish blocks unless the worker has consented or one of the regulatory exceptions applies (worker request, voluntary swap, mass-message response, public emergency).
When a covered schedule changes within the 14-day window, Teambridge calculates predictability pay: 1 hour pay for added hours, half-pay for hours cut, 1 hour pay for shift cancellation. The amount auto-adds to the next paycheck.
When a closing shift and following opening shift would leave less than 10 hours rest, Teambridge surfaces an Avoid indicator. If the worker voluntarily agrees in writing, the shift can proceed but hours within the 10-hour window must be paid at 1.5×.
Before hiring new workers or adding new shifts, Teambridge surfaces a Flag listing existing part-time workers qualified for the role. The mass-message offer to current workers is a regulatory requirement; sending it through the worker app satisfies the requirement.
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Four pillars: notice, predictability pay, rest, hours-offered-first.
Seattle Secure Scheduling was the first Fair Workweek law in Washington (predating Chicago's). It applies to a narrow but operationally significant slice: large retail and food service.
Coverage
Retail or food service establishments with 500+ employees worldwide. Full-service restaurants additionally need 40+ locations worldwide. Coverage applies to all hourly workers at covered employers performing work in Seattle. Franchise systems count the entire global franchise network for the 500-employee/40-location thresholds. Coffee, fast food, retail apparel, big-box stores, and full-service chain restaurants are typically covered.
14-day advance written schedule
Schedules must be posted in writing at least 14 days before the first day of the new schedule. Posting can be physical or digital. The schedule must include: shift start/end times, days, location. New hires must receive a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) of expected hours and locations at hire and reviewed annually. The GFE is binding for predictability-pay purposes.
Teambridge handles the four pillars at the source.
Seattle Secure Scheduling is operationally heavy not because the rules are complex individually but because they interact: a single shift change can trigger multiple obligations.
Schedule lock at notice deadline.
Schedules publish 14 days in advance for covered Seattle workers. The publish action requires the schedule to span the full 14-day window. Late publish blocks at the source.
Auto-calc when changes happen.
When a published schedule changes, Teambridge tracks the change against regulatory exceptions. If predictability pay applies, the amount auto-adds to the next paycheck as a separate line item. Worker app shows the predictability pay so disputes are rare.
Cross-shift gap analysis.
When a closing shift is followed by an opening shift, Teambridge calculates the gap. Less than 10 hours surfaces Avoid. Worker can voluntarily agree (in-app written consent) to proceed; hours within window auto-mark for 1.5× pay.
Mass message before new hire.
Before adding shifts that would justify a new hire, Teambridge auto-generates a mass-message offer to existing qualified part-time workers via the app. Worker responses log automatically. If no responses, hiring proceeds; if responses, hours assign per regulatory priority.
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