1. Lonnie Golden, Professor of Economics and Labor-Employment Relations, Penn State University, Abington College, and Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute, Lmg5@psu.eduLmg5@psu.edu (with help from Jaeseung Kim and EINet, University of Chicago, SSA, and EPI). Congressional Forum on Irregular Work Schedules, U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce. 1310 Longworth, Washington DC, 2015 Could We Improve Worker Well-Being with Scheduling Reforms? Evidence from Research about Irregular/On-call Work Schedules and their Effects on Workers, from the General Social Survey

3. I.Findings from EPI study using GSS data, re: the incidence of irregular/on-call work schedules and other shift work, plus some new PPP poll results, from the University of Chicago Employment Insecurity network (EINET). II.Findings regarding the (self-reported) consequences for workers’ work-family conflict and work stress levels, by type of worker— hourly, salaried, other. II.Evidence suggests that providing a protected “right to request” (and “right to refuse”) work hours and schedule changes, in the FLSA, for all workers, could improve certain workers’ well being, by reducing… both underemployment and overemployment mismatches daily conflicts of workers’ work time with their nonwork needs

4. About 10 percent of the workforce is assigned to irregular and on-call work shift times and this figure is likely low… but 17 percent of the workforce if we add the 7 percent of the employed who work split or rotating shifts as part of “unstable work schedules.” 16 percent among hourly, 12 percent among salaried (36 percent among “other,” e.g., “contract”). Likely underestimates, because shift times can change within a given day, afternoon or night shift. Among just part-time workers = 25 percent, 16 percent on irregular/on-call schedules (one in 6); By income level, the lowest income workers face the most irregular work schedules. Workers earning under $22,500 per year are more likely to work on irregular schedules than workers in the income bracket above that (the current salary minimum threshold for assured FLSA overtime coverage even if one is a “salaried” employee). Having Irregular shift work is associated positively with working longer weekly hours. By occupation type, about 15 percent of sales and related occupations have irregular or on-call schedules—one in a half times the national average. By industry, irregular scheduling is somewhat more prevalent in agriculture, personal services, business/repair services, entertainment/recreation, finance/insurance/real estate, retail trade, and transportation communications. In CPS, workers asked to specify “usual” workweek length, one in every 11 or 12 say their “hours vary.” Part-timers have more than double the likelihood of having hours that vary weekly. Such variable workweeks is higher in certain occupations, such as sales, and lower in professional, managerial, and administrative support. It is reduced for union members, married workers, government employees, whites, men, and workers with a higher level of education.

5. Q6 Thinking of your main job, which of the following best describes the hours you usually work: a regular day shift, an evening shift, a night shift, a rotating shift, a split shift, an irregular schedule, or something else? Regular day shift............................................. 67% Evening shift................................................... 5% Night shift........................................................ 3% Rotating shift................................................... 5% Split shift......................................................... 3% Irregular schedule........................................... 16% Something else............................................... 2% Q7 Does the number of hours you work vary from week to week? Yes.................................................................. 55% No................................................................... 45%

6. Irregular scheduling is higher in certain industries, such as retail, however, it exists at least somewhat in all…and shows interesting party affiliations…

7. This conforms to another study of “early career” workers (Lambert, Fugiel and Henly, 2015), that just under half of hourly early career workers in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth said they have their daily start and end times of work decided entirely by their employer, without their input.

9. 2015 Federal Reserve Report on Household Well-Being in the US: a measure of overemployment and underemployment Underemployment is currently pervasive, particularly among part- timers, while overemployment is less so, although it is high in pockets, such as twice as present among full-timers than part-timers…

11. HELP: The Flexibility for Working Families Act (H.R. 2559, S. 1248), would institute an individual employee “right to request” a change in four terms of employment: number of work hours; daily scheduling times or being on call; location where employee is required to work; length of notification employee receives of work schedule assignments. The Healthy Families Act (H.R. 1286/S. 631), a paid sick days minimum standard, earn up to 7 job-protected paid sick days annually The Paid Vacation Act (H. R. 2096), which would require that employers provide a minimum of 1 week of paid annual leave to eligible employees. HARM: H.R. 1406 and its companion, the “Family Friendly and Workplace Flexibility Act” (S. 1626), would allow private sector employers to substitute compensatory (comp) time for overtime pay, if an employee signs on, compensated by employers with future time off at rate of 1.5 hours for every hour of OT worked. S. 1623 would also institute a “flexible credit-hour program,” that would allow agreements for an employee to work excess hours beyond their typical, non-overtime number of required hours, in order to build up hours of paid time off to be taken off at a later date (only) at straight time value. However, a worker’s use of accrued comp time credits can be denied if use would `unduly disrupt' the operations of the business or if they have not notified with reasonable amount of notice, while forced use of comp time would be legal. No deterrent against employers scheduling more OT work to those who prefer the future time off. A Poll found only about 1 in 6 hourly paid workers would prefer comp time to OT pay option, however, such preference is 1 in 3 among those who are currently exempt from any OT pay, which is thus where policy efforts for time off should be focused.