Author: janareserva

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Sk8 Expo 2026: Keeping Business Rolling for FEC Operators

Three days at Sk8 Expo 2026 gave our team plenty of opportunities to talk with FEC operators and industry peers about what’s happening across the industry. 

From the software they rely on to the costs they’re watching more closely, a few themes kept coming up. Here’s what we heard.

Integrations are the first questions operators ask

If there’s one question we heard more than any other, it was some version of: “What do you integrate with?”

It makes sense. FEC operators may already be working across POS systems, scheduling, payroll, and other operational tools. Adding another system shouldn’t mean adding more manual work along with it. 

For us, it reinforced just how important interoperability is when operators evaluate new software. Before getting into features, many want to know whether a new platform will work with the systems they already depend on. 

Operators are paying closer attention to software costs

Another recurring theme was cost transparency, particularly around software pricing and fees. 

With recent changes such as the QuickBooks Online price increase, operators have good reason to look more closely at what they’re spending across their tech stack and how predictable those costs are. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean replacing what’s already working. But it does make this a good time to review the systems you’re paying for, what you’re getting from them, and whether they still make sense for how your business operates today. 

Also read: Best Payroll Software for Family Entertainment Centers: Top Picks and Key Features

Getting more from labor remains a priority

Labor was another consistent theme in our conversations. 

Operators are thinking about how to get more value from their labor spend while also investing strategically in areas that help bring guests through the door. The takeaway wasn’t simply about cutting costs. It was about being more intentional with where money goes and making sure those investments deliver value. 

For labor, that puts greater emphasis on accurate demand forecasting, so operators can better anticipate staffing needs, schedule accordingly, and keep labor costs in check without compromising the guest experience.

Looking ahead

Our conversations at Sk8 Expo pointed to a common thread: Operators are taking a closer look at the systems they use, what they cost, and whether they’re actually helping the business operate more efficiently. 

For operators reviewing their approach, labor optimization is a good place to start. 

If you’re looking to get more from your labor spend and simplify how you manage your team, Workforce.com can help. Book a call today.

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QuickBooks Price Increase 2026: What Hourly Employers Should Know

Summary:

  • QuickBooks Online pricing changed in August 2026, affecting Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans.
  • Plus is now $140/month, while Advanced is $340/month. Intuit says the higher pricing comes alongside new and expanded product capabilities.
  • Employers can use the change as an opportunity to review their current setup, overlapping tools, and explore other options.

QuickBooks Online’s latest price increase is now in effect, with some of its higher-tier plans seeing substantial jumps in monthly cost. 

A price increase doesn’t suddenly make QuickBooks a bad product. For businesses that rely on it for accounting, payroll, bookkeeping, reporting, and other financial processes, staying with the platform may still make perfect sense. 

But a significant increase in software costs is a natural time to reassess what each system in your operation is actually doing, and whether it still fits how your business works. 

For hourly employers in particular, the assessment should go beyond the monthly subscription fee, because the biggest labor costs usually happen long before payroll runs.

How did QuickBooks’ pricing change in August 2026?

QuickBooks Online prices changed for renewals on or after August 1, 2026, affecting Essentials, Plus, and Advanced plans. The increases are particularly steep at the higher end: Plus is now $140 per month, up from $115, and Advanced is now $340 per month, up from $275.

Free, Lite, Ledger, and Simple Start plans retain the same subscription prices.

PlanPrevious PricingNew Pricing
Essentials$75/mo$85/mo
Plus$115/mo$140/mo
Advanced$275/mo$340/mo
Source: QuickBooks Online August pricing changes and product updates: Frequently Asked Questions

Intuit says the new pricing comes alongside continued investment in QuickBooks Online, including new AI-powered capabilities and improvements to core workflows. For Advanced customers, that includes features such as Bill Pay Elite, industry-specific tools, and enhanced reporting.

That means businesses aren’t necessarily paying more for exactly the same product. For those using the added capabilities, the higher cost may be easier to justify. For others, the increase may be a reason to reassess what they’re paying for and using.

QuickBooks Desktop users are already facing a transition

The price increase also comes during a broader shift in the QuickBooks product lineup. 

Intuit stopped selling new subscriptions to QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, Premier Plus, and Mac Plus in September 2024. Existing subscribers can continue renewing. Connected services for QuickBooks Desktop 2023 ended on May 31, 2026, while Desktop 2024 has a longer runway through September 2027. 

That means some longtime QuickBooks customers are likely reconsidering what their future setup should look like. The obvious route may be to move from Desktop to Online and operate largely as before. 

But the transition also gives employers an opportunity to reassess what they actually need each piece of their software stack to do. 

For hourly employers, look at the whole QuickBooks setup

QuickBooks began as accounting software, but its ecosystem now extends into payroll, time tracking, and other employee management functions.

Which QuickBooks products are you actually using? Which functions are handled elsewhere? Are you paying for overlapping capabilities? Do integrations or manual work keep employee and payroll data moving between systems?

The answers matter more than the number of products in the stack. Several systems can work well together if each has a clear purpose and data moves reliably between them. Problems tend to emerge when businesses are paying for duplicate functionality or employees have to manually bridge gaps between systems.

For hourly employers, those gaps can become particularly noticeable around time and payroll, where inaccurate or incomplete data often creates additional administrative work.

The goal, then, isn’t necessarily to replace QuickBooks or consolidate everything into one platform. It’s to determine whether the higher price still makes sense in the context of everything else you’re paying for and using.

What should employers do?

The QuickBooks price increase doesn’t mean every business needs a new system. Instead, it’s a reason to take a closer look at whether your current setup still delivers enough value to justify its total cost.

Keep your current setup if it works

If QuickBooks continues to meet your needs, your team uses the functionality you’re paying for, and the new price remains reasonable for your business, there may be little reason to change.

Switching core financial software has its own costs, from implementation and migration to integrations and staff training. Weigh those costs against what you would actually save or improve by moving elsewhere.

Check for functionality you’re paying for twice

QuickBooks now offers capabilities across accounting, payroll, time tracking, and other areas. Depending on your setup, some of those functions may overlap with other software your business already pays for.

That overlap isn’t necessarily a problem. Two systems may perform different roles while sharing some functionality.

But it’s worth checking whether you’re paying for features you rarely use because another system has become your primary tool for that job.

Look at where things get complicated

Cost also includes the work required to keep your systems running together.

Look for places where employees have to manually move or correct information. Are hours being re-entered between systems? Do spreadsheets need to be used to prepare data for payroll? Do managers or payroll teams regularly have to resolve missing or inconsistent information?

If one part of the setup creates disproportionate administrative work, focus the review there rather than assuming the entire stack needs replacing.

The goal isn’t necessarily to use fewer products. It’s to make sure each one has a clear purpose and works effectively with the others.

Use the price increase as a reason to review the bigger picture

The more important question is whether the entire process—from scheduling and timekeeping through payroll and accounting—is working efficiently for the size and complexity of your workforce.

For hourly employers, the biggest opportunity to control payroll costs usually isn’t found when payroll runs. It’s found in how labor is planned, scheduled, worked, tracked, and managed before payroll gets there.

Reassessing your current setup? Talk to our team about your options.

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What NYC’s Latest Fair Workweek Cases Mean for Employers: Is Your Business Ready?

Recently, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) announced enforcement actions against multiple retailers for violating the city’s Fair Workweek Law. Walgreens agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution to workers, along with $163,000 in civil penalties, while Calzedonia, the parent company of lingerie retailer Intimissimi, agreed to pay more than $154,000 in restitution and more than $15,000 in civil penalties and costs.

According to the DCWP, Walgreens failed to provide employees with the required 72 hours’ advance notice of work schedules and required employees to work additional hours without the notice or consent required under the law. Calzedonia was cited for similar violations, including failing to provide advance notice of schedules, requiring employees to work additional hours without proper notice or consent, and canceling shifts without sufficient notice.

The same enforcement sweep also included penalties against employers that violated New York City’s Protected Time Off Law, bringing the total recovery across both laws to more than $2.3 million and reinforcing the city’s continued focus on workplace protections.

It’s part of a larger pattern, too. DCWP has recovered more than $10.1 million in worker restitution in just the first six months of the current administration, on top of nearly $90 million secured under the previous one.

These cases are not about elaborate payroll fraud or intentional wage theft. They’re significant because they involve some of the most common scheduling challenges that employers face every day. 

And that’s exactly why every employer operating under Fair Workweek or predictive scheduling laws should be paying attention.

The violations weren’t complicated, but they were costly

None of the companies cited were accused of exploiting obscure loopholes or deliberately withholding wages. Instead, the violations arose from everyday scheduling decisions. Publishing schedules, filling open shifts, asking employees to work additional hours, or canceling shifts are all routine parts of retail operations. The challenge is ensuring those everyday decisions comply with Fair Workweek requirements.

What New York City’s Fair Workweek Law requires

New York City’s Fair Workweek Law includes separate requirements for retail employers and fast food employers.

Retail employers

Retail employers covered by the law are generally required to:

  • Provide employees with at least 72 hours’ advance notice of their work schedules.
  • Post schedules in writing and notify employees of any changes.
  • Obtain employee consent before requiring them to work additional hours that weren’t included in the original schedule.
  • Maintain records demonstrating compliance with scheduling requirements.

Fast food employers

Fast food employers are subject to a broader set of predictive scheduling requirements, including:

  • Providing employees with 14 days’ advance notice of their work schedules.
  • Paying schedule change premiums when employer-initiated changes are made after the required notice period.
  • Offering additional hours to existing employees before hiring new staff, subject to certain exceptions.
  • Providing a good faith estimate of expected hours and maintaining required scheduling records.

Predictive scheduling laws also exist in several cities and localities across the United States, while Oregon remains the only state with a statewide Fair Workweek law. Although each jurisdiction has its own requirements, they generally share the same goal: to give employees more predictability while placing greater responsibility on employers to manage scheduling fairly. 

Also read: Fair Workweek Laws Explained: A Guide for Employers

Most Fair Workweek violations are not intentional

No employer sets out to violate Fair Workweek laws. Beyond knowing the rules, the challenge is consistently applying them every time a schedule is created or changed.

As the recent NYC cases show, employers didn’t violate the law because it was particularly complex. They fell short because Fair Workweek requirements weren’t consistently built into the scheduling process.

A schedule is published a day late, an employee is asked to work an extra shift without documenting their consent, or a shift is canceled over text with no record of the change. Individually, these situations may seem minor. But when they don’t meet Fair Workweek requirements, they become compliance violations.

For employers operating across multiple stores or jurisdictions, keeping these processes consistent becomes even more difficult.

An operational challenge

Fair Workweek compliance is more than just a legal problem. It’s primarily an operational one. The biggest compliance risk usually happens even before payroll is processed. 

Meeting Fair Workweek requirements becomes much harder when managers don’t have enough visibility into labor demand to build schedules early enough, schedule changes are communicated informally instead of being documented, or different locations are subject to different compliance rules.

The more locations a business operates, the more opportunities there are for those processes to break down. 

Building Fair Workweek compliance into everyday scheduling

Rather than relying on manual processes or hoping managers remember every jurisdiction’s requirements, employers should look for systems that make compliance part of the scheduling process itself. 

Start with better labor forecasting

Advance notice requirements depend on publishing schedules early. 

That becomes much easier when managers can forecast labor demand using historical sales, staffing patterns, and expected business activity. Better forecasting means schedules can be built and published well before the advance notice periods. 

Prevent violations before they happen. 

Scheduling software should do more than build schedules. It should help managers identify potential compliance issues before they’re finalized—for example:

  • Publishing schedules after the required notice period
  • Scheduling prohibited clopening shifts
  • Making schedule changes that may trigger Fair Workweek requirements
  • Assigning additional hours that may require employee consent

It should also provide built-in workflows to support compliance, such as capturing employee consent and automatically recording schedule acknowledgments when they’re required.

Instead of expecting managers to remember every rule, the right system helps enforce them consistently. 

Calculate premium pay accurately

Last-minute scheduling changes are sometimes unavoidable. When they happen, employers need confidence that any required predictability pay or scheduling premiums are calculated correctly and flow directly into payroll. 

Just as importantly, every schedule change, employee acknowledgment, and consent should be automatically recorded to create an audit trail if questions arise later. 

Is your scheduling process ready for predictive scheduling laws?

Even if your business isn’t currently covered by predictive scheduling laws, it’s worth asking whether your current scheduling process could support them if they were introduced tomorrow. 

A few questions to help evaluate your process: 

  • Can managers consistently publish schedules before required notice periods? 
  • Do schedule changes automatically trigger compliance warnings? 
  • Can you easily verify and document employee consent for schedule changes?
  • Are any required scheduling premiums calculated automatically? 
  • Can you produce a complete history of schedule changes if you’re audited?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” there may be gaps worth addressing before they become compliance issues.

How Workforce.com helps employers stay compliant

Effective Fair Workweek compliance goes beyond simply knowing the rules. Employers need systems that help prevent violations, correctly calculate any premiums that arise from schedule changes, and maintain the documentation needed to demonstrate compliance.

That’s why Workforce.com is designed for the critical areas of Fair Workweek compliance:

Prevention

Managers get alerted of potential violations during scheduling to help avoid common compliance pitfalls before schedules are published. 

Calculation

When schedule changes trigger premium pay requirements, Workforce.com can automatically calculate those dollar amounts and ensure they are reflected in payroll. 

Documentation

Schedule changes, employee acknowledgments, and consent records are automatically logged, giving employers the documentation they need if compliance questions arise. 

Instead of relying on manual processes, businesses can build Fair Workweek compliance directly into the way schedules are created, updated, and paid.

Fair Workweek compliance isn’t something businesses can afford to think about only when an audit or investigation arises. The strongest compliance strategies are built into everyday operations, making it easier for managers to do the right thing and for employers to demonstrate compliance when it matters.

For businesses already operating under predictive scheduling laws, now is the time to evaluate whether existing scheduling processes are enough to meet those requirements. And for businesses expanding into new markets, building compliance into scheduling today is far easier than retrofitting processes after an investigation begins.

See how Workforce.com helps employers stay ahead of Fair Workweek compliance. Book a demo today.

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Fair Workweek Laws Explained: A Guide for Employers [2026]

Summary:

  • Inconsistent shifts and sudden schedule changes place undue financial and logistical stress on the lives of employees outside of work. 
  • Predictive scheduling laws address this issue by mandating advance notice for schedules and premium pay for sudden shift changes. However, navigating these laws can be challenging due to varying city and state regulations.
  • Employers navigate predictive scheduling laws with specialized software that accounts for local labor ordinances, enforces fair scheduling practices, automates predictability pay, and maintains records.

Unpredictable schedules and last-minute shift changes have long created financial instability and operational challenges in hourly workplaces. In response, a growing number of U.S. jurisdictions have introduced Fair Workweek laws to improve schedule predictability and transparency.

What are predictive scheduling or Fair Workweek laws?

“Fair Workweek laws” is a commonly used term for a set of local labor regulations, also known as predictive scheduling laws, that aim to give employees more predictable, stable work schedules. The term has evolved into a catch-all for a growing set of local and state regulations aimed at addressing “just-in-time” scheduling practices.

There is no single federal Fair Workweek law in the United States. Instead, individual jurisdictions have enacted their own rules under different names. For example, New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia use “Fair Workweek,” while others, such as Oregon, Seattle, and San Francisco, use different terminology but enforce many of the same requirements.

At their core, these laws are designed to reduce the uncertainty and financial instability that can result from last-minute scheduling changes in hourly workplaces.

Although requirements vary by location, most Fair Workweek laws include a common set of rules:

  • Advance notice of schedules: Employers must provide work schedules in advance, typically 14 days.
  • Predictability pay: Employees receive additional compensation if schedules are changed after posting.
  • Right to rest: Employers must provide a minimum number of hours between shifts or pay a premium if the employee agrees to work.
  • Right to decline shifts: Employees can refuse certain last-minute or “clopening” shifts without penalty.
  • Good faith estimate: Employers must provide an estimate of expected work hours at the time of hiring.
  • Access to additional hours: Existing employees are often given priority for additional shifts before new hires.

Many laws also include recordkeeping requirements and protections against retaliation.

In practice, Fair Workweek laws apply to a relatively small portion of the U.S. workforce—primarily large employers in industries like retail, hospitality, and food service—but they can have a significant operational impact on businesses that meet coverage thresholds.

Enforcement and risk also vary widely by jurisdiction. Some cities, like New York, have pursued large, high-profile enforcement actions, while others rely more on complaint-driven enforcement. As a result, compliance priorities often depend as much on location as on the law itself. Even so, compliance isn’t something employers can afford to overlook, as violations can still surface through complaints and lead to penalties.

Where are Fair Workweek laws being implemented?

Oregon (Statewide Predictive Scheduling Law)

Oregon is the only place where predictive scheduling laws are being implemented statewide so far.

Covered employers

Employers in the retail, hospitality, and food service industries with 500 or more employees worldwide

Advance notice period

  • Written work schedules at least 14 days in advance, including on-call work
  • Good faith estimates upon hiring
  • Employees may decline shifts that are not included in the posted schedule.

Predictability pay

Employees are entitled to additional compensation when schedules are changed without sufficient notice:

  • One hour of additional pay at the regular rate, in addition to wages earned, when:
    • Time is added to a shift (30 minutes or more)
    • The date or start/end time of a shift is changed without reducing hours
    • An additional shift or on-call shift is added
  • Half the employee’s regular rate of pay for lost hours when:
    • Hours are reduced
    • Changes that result in loss of shift hours
    • A shift is canceled
    • An on-call shift is not ultimately worked

Rest hours and clopening

There must be a 10-hour rest period between shifts. Employees can decline the rest period and be paid at time and a half. 

Exceptions

Additional pay is not required for schedule changes due to natural disasters or events outside an employer’s control, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, extreme temperatures, war, or explosions.

Berkeley, CA (Fair Workweek Ordinance)

Berkeley’s Fair Workweek Ordinance applies to employers in certain industries, with coverage thresholds that vary by sector.

Covered employers

Employers operating in the City of Berkeley with 10 or more employees in Berkeley, and:

  • 56 or more employees globally in industries such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, building services, manufacturing, and warehouse services
  • 100 or more employees globally if they are:
    • Restaurant employers
    • Franchisees in the retail or restaurant industries
    • Nonprofit organizations in covered industries

Advance notice period

  • Written work schedules at least 14 days in advance, including on-call work
  • Good faith estimates upon hiring

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of predictability pay for any schedule change made between 1 and 14 days before a shift.
  • Up to 4 hours of predictability pay (or the number of hours reduced, whichever is less) for cancellations or reduced hours with less than 24 hours’ notice.
  • 1 hour of predictability pay for adding, changing, or moving a shift with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Rest hours and clopening

Employers must allow employees to decline shifts that occur less than 11 hours apart.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not applicable to employee-initiated shift swaps or changes. It is also not owed for grace periods of 10 minutes before and after a shift.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer any additional hours to existing part-time employees before hiring new staff or temporary worker.

Emeryville, CA (Fair Workweek Ordinances)

Emeryville’s Fair Workweek Ordinance applies to retail and fast food employers, including certain franchise businesses.

Covered employees

Employers with nonexempt full-time, part-time, on-call, contract, and seasonal employees that are in:

  • Retail with 56 or more employees globally
  • Fast food with 56 or more employees globally or 20 or more employees in Emeryville

Advance notice period

  • Written work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimates upon hiring
  • Employees can decline unscheduled hours given less than the notice.

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of pay if a schedule change is made between 1 and 14 days before the shift
  • The lesser of 4 hours of pay or the originally scheduled hours for cancellations or reduced hours with less than 24 hours’ notice, employees get
  • 1 hour of pay for any other changes made within 24 hours will give employees

Rest hours and clopening

Employers must pay time and a half pay for any hours worked for shifts that are less than 11 hours apart. Employees have the right to decline shifts less than 11 hours apart.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Employee-initiated changes, such as voluntary shift swaps or requests to modify a schedule
  • Minor schedule adjustments, including changes of 10 minutes or less before or after a shift
  • Events outside the employer’s control, such as natural disasters or utility failures
  • When employees work past their scheduled shift to complete a transaction that results in a commission or tip
  • Mutually agreed-upon changes, where employees voluntarily accept additional work in advance

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer additional hours to existing qualified part-time employees until they reach 35 hours of work in a calendar week in at least 4-hour increments.

Recordkeeping requirements

Employers must maintain records for at least three years.

San Francisco, CA (Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance)

San Francisco’s Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinance (FRERO) applies to large chain retail businesses with standardized operations.

Covered employers

Formula retail establishments with 40 or more locations worldwide and 20 or more employees in San Francisco, including janitorial and security contractors.

Advance schedule notice period

  • Written work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of hours upon hiring

Predictability Pay

Employees are entitled to predictability pay for schedule changes made with less than 7 days’ notice, including:

  • Added or changed shifts
  • Reduced or canceled shifts
  • Unused on-call shifts

The amount of pay varies depending on the type and timing of the change.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Threats to employee safety, property damage, or events outside the employer’s control
  • Employee-initiated schedule changes or shift swaps
  • When an employee fails to report to work or is sent home for disciplinary reasons

Equal treatment for part-time employees

Employers must provide part-time employees with the same starting hourly wage and access to promotions as full-time employees performing similar work.

Los Angeles City, CA (Fair Workweek Ordinance)

Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance applies to large retail employers operating within the city.

Covered employers

Retail businesses with 300 or more employees globally

Advance notice period

  • Work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of hours upon hiring
  • Employees may decline hours or shifts added after the notice period.

Predictability pay

Employees are entitled to additional compensation when employers make changes to the posted work schedule:

  • 1 hour of pay at the regular rate for each employer-initiated change that:
    • Increases scheduled hours by more than 15 minutes, or
    • Changes the date, time, or location of a shift
  • Half the employee’s regular rate of pay for hours not worked when:
    • Scheduled hours are reduced by 15 minutes or more
    • An on-call shift is not worked

Rest hours and clopenings

Employees must not work a shift that starts less than 10 hours from the previous shift. Otherwise, employees must provide written consent, and time and a half pay applies to shifts following an insufficient rest period.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Employee-initiated schedule changes
  • Voluntary shift coverage for absent employees
  • Reductions due to disciplinary action or policy violations
  • Additional hours accepted voluntarily under the ordinance
  • Events outside the employer’s control

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer work to current employees at least 72 hours before hiring a new employee or using a contractor, temporary service, or staffing agency to perform work.

Recordkeeping requirements
Employers must maintain records for at least three years.

Los Angeles County, CA (Fair Workweek Ordinance)

Los Angeles County’s Fair Workweek Ordinance, effective July 1, 2025, expands predictive scheduling requirements to retail employers operating in unincorporated areas of the county.

Covered employers

Retail businesses with 300 or more employees globally that operate in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Advance notice period

  • Work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of hours upon hiring
  • Employees may decline hours or shifts added after the notice period.

Predictability pay
Employees are entitled to additional compensation when employers make changes to the posted work schedule:

  • 1 hour of pay at the regular rate for each change to a scheduled date, time, or location that:
    • Does not result in a loss of work time, or
    • Results in additional work time of more than 15 minutes
  • Half the employee’s regular rate of pay for hours not worked when:
    • Scheduled work time is reduced by 15 minutes or more
    • An on-call shift is not worked

Rest hours and clopening

  • Employees may decline shifts scheduled less than 10 hours apart
  • Employees may agree to work such shifts, but must provide written consent and be paid time and a half for those hours.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer additional hours to current employees before hiring new staff or using contractors or staffing agencies.

Exceptions
Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Employee-initiated schedule changes, such as requests to modify a shift or voluntary shift swaps
  • Voluntary acceptance of additional hours, including when covering for another employee’s absence, provided the employee is informed that the change is voluntary and consents.
  • Reductions in hours due to violations of law or company policy
  • Events outside the employer’s control, such as natural disasters or public emergencies

Recordkeeping requirements

Employers must maintain records of work schedules, schedule changes, and employee consent for at least three years.

Chicago, IL (Fair Workweek Ordinance)

Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance applies to employers across several industries and includes both employer-size and employee-wage thresholds.

Covered employers

  • Employers with 100 or more employees globally in the following industries:
    • Building services
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels
    • Manufacturing
    • Retail
    • Warehouse services
  • Restaurant employers with 250 or more employees and at least 30 locations globally
  • Employer size is calculated using the average number of global employees over a 12-month period for existing employers, or over the previous 90 days for new employers

Covered employees

Covered employees are those earning $33.85 per hour or less, or $64,945.55 per year or less. The same 12-month/90-day averaging method is used to count covered employees.

Advance notice requirements

  • Notice of work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of work hours upon hiring

Predictability pay

Employees are entitled to additional compensation when schedules are changed after posting:

  • 1 hour of pay for changes made with less than 14 days’ notice

For changes made with less than 24 hours’ notice:

  • 1 hour of pay if employers add hours, or there is no loss of hours
  • Half pay for hours not worked if hours are reduced

Exceptions
Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Threats to employees, employers, or property, or when authorities advise against work
  • Utility failures at the workplace
  • Natural disasters or severe weather events
  • War, civil unrest, strikes, or public emergencies
  • Voluntary shift trades or coverage between employees
  • Schedule changes mutually agreed upon in writing
  • Employee-requested schedule changes
  • Reductions in hours due to documented disciplinary action

Rest hours and clopening

Employees may decline shifts scheduled less than 10 hours apart from the end of their previous shift. If they agree to work anyway, employers must pay 1.25 times the employee’s regular rate, regardless of whether the employee requested or consented to it. Consent can be given on an ongoing basis but may be revoked at any time.

If a double-shift (consecutive shifts) falls within the 10-hour window, the entire double-shift is paid at 1.25x. For split-shifts, only the portion starting less than 10 hours after a shift spanning two calendar days triggers the premium.

Right to rest pay must be paid no later than the next payday and must be itemized separately on the pay stub.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer additional shifts to qualified employees before hiring new staff. If shifts are not accepted, they may be offered to temporary or seasonal workers.

Recordkeeping requirements

Employers must maintain records of work schedules, schedule changes, predictability pay, and employee consent for at least three years.

Evanston, IL (Fair Workweek Ordinance)

Evanston’s Fair Workweek Ordinance closely mirrors Chicago’s, applying to employers in several hourly industries with both size and location thresholds.

Covered employers

Employers with:

  • 100 or more employees globally, including franchises, in the following industries:
    • Hospitality
    • Retail
    • Warehouse services
    • Manufacturing
    • Building services
  • Food service and restaurant employers with 30 or more locations globally and 300 or more employees globally

Advance notice requirements

  • Notice of work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of work hours upon hiring

Predictability pay
Employees are entitled to additional compensation when employers make changes to the posted work schedule:

  • 1 hour of pay per impacted shift when:
    • Hours are added after the 14-day notice period
    • The date or time of a shift is changed with no loss of hours after the 14-day notice period
    • Scheduled hours are reduced with more than 24 hours’ notice
  • When scheduled hours are reduced with less than 24 hours’ notice:
    • Up to 4 hours of pay, or the number of hours in the scheduled shift (whichever is less)
  • On-call shifts:
    • If the employee is not compensated (or paid below their regular rate):
      • They are owed predictability pay if called in
      • They are owed up to 4 hours of pay (or scheduled hours, whichever is less) if not called in
    • If the employee is paid at their regular rate during the on-call shift, no additional predictability pay is required if they are called in

Rest hours and clopening

Employees must provide written consent to work shifts scheduled less than 11 hours apart. If they work such shifts, they must be paid time and a half.

Access to hours for existing employees

  • Employers must offer additional hours to existing employees before hiring new staff.
  • Employers must offer interested employees the opportunity to work up to 35 hours per week before hiring new employees.
  • Additional hours may be offered across locations, not just the employee’s primary worksite.

New York City, NY (Fair Workweek Law)

Fair Workweek rules in New York City apply separately to fast food and retail employers, with different requirements for each sector.

Covered employers

  • Fast food establishments that are part of a chain with 30 or more locations nationally
  • Retail employers with 20 or more employees in New York City

Advanced notice requirements

Fast food employers

  • Must provide work schedules at least 14 days in advance

Retail employers

  • Must provide work schedules at least 72 hours in advance
  • Employers cannot cancel a shift or add shifts without employee consent
  • Require on-call shifts 

Predictability Pay

Fast food employers

  • Must provide premium pay for schedule changes made after the notice period
  • Pay ranges vary depending on the timing and type of change (e.g., additions, reductions, or cancellations). It can cost $10-$75 per change, less than the notice period.

Retail employers

Retail laws do not include predictability pay. Instead, employers may face penalties and damages for violating scheduling requirements.

Rest and clopening

Fast food employers

Employers cannot schedule employees to work shifts with less than 11 hours between shifts (“clopening”) unless:

  • The employee is given the opportunity to decline
  • The employee provides written consent
  • The employer pays a $100 premium for each clopening shift worked

Retail employers

  • No specific rest period or clopening requirements

Access to hours for existing employees

Fast food employers

  • Must offer additional work hours to current employees before hiring new staff

Retail employers

  • No specific access to hours requirements

Exceptions

Fast food employers

Fast food employers are not required to provide premium pay in certain situations, including:

  • Threats to employee or employer safety or property
  • Public utility failures or transportation disruptions
  • Natural disasters or declared states of emergency
  • Severe weather conditions
  • Employee-initiated schedule changes (e.g., time-off requests or shift swaps)

Retail employers

No formal exceptions apply; instead, employers must comply with strict scheduling requirements, and violations may result in penalties.

Recordkeeping requirements

Fast food and retail employers must maintain records for at least three years.

More about New York City’s Fair Workweek Laws for Fast Food and Retail Businesses.

Philadelphia, PA (Fair Workweek Law)

Philadelphia’s Fair Workweek law applies to large employers in retail, hospitality, and food service industries.

Covered employers
Employers with 250 or more employees globally and 30 or more locations globally, including chains and franchises in:

  • Retail
  • Hospitality
  • Food service

Advance notice requirements

  • Notice of work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of work hours upon hiring
  • Employees may decline additional hours not included in the posted schedule

Predictability pay
Employees are entitled to additional compensation when schedules are changed after posting:

  • 1 hour of pay at the regular rate when:
    • Time is added to a scheduled shift
    • The date, time, or location of a shift is changed with no loss of hours
  • Half the employee’s regular rate of pay for hours not worked when:
    • Scheduled hours are reduced
    • An on-call shift is not worked

Rest hours and clopening

Employees must receive at least 9 hours of rest between shifts

If they agree to work with less than 9 hours between shifts:

  • They must provide written consent
  • Employers must pay a $40 premium for each clopening shift

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer available work hours to existing employees before hiring new staff.

Recordkeeping requirements

Employers must maintain records for at least 2 years.

Seattle, WA (Secure Scheduling Ordinance)

Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance applies to large retail and food service employers and includes scheduling protections.

Covered employers

  • Retail and food service establishments with 500 or more employees worldwide
  • For full-service restaurants, coverage applies only if the employer also has 40 or more full-service locations worldwide

Advance notice requirements

  • Notice of work schedules at least 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate of work hours to new hires

Predictability pay

1 hour of pay at the regular rate when:

  • Hours are added to a shift
  • The date or time of a shift is changed

Half the employee’s regular rate of pay for hours not worked when:

  • Work hours are reduced
  • An on-call shift is not worked

Rest hours and clopening

Employees should receive at least 10 hours of rest between shifts. If they agree to work shifts less than 10 hours apart, they must provide consent, and employers must pay time and a half for those hours.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not required in certain situations, including:

  • Employee-initiated schedule changes or shift swaps
  • Voluntary coverage for absent employees
  • Reductions due to disciplinary action
  • Events outside the employer’s control (e.g., natural disasters, utility failures, or public emergencies)

Access to hours for existing employees

  • Employers must offer additional hours to current employees before hiring externally
  • Employers must post available hours for at least 3 days
  • Employees must be given at least 2 days to accept the additional hours

Recordkeeping requirements

Employers must maintain records for at least 3 years. 

Anti-retaliation and enforcement risks

Compliance with Fair Workweek rules starts with getting schedules right. But beyond that, the law is also strict about how employers respond when workers actually use these protections. This is where anti-retaliation rules come in, and they’re baked into Fair Workweek ordinances. 

Aside from scheduling rules, most Fair Workweek ordinances also include safeguards that protect employees when they exercise their rights. In practice, this means employers can’t punish or disadvantage workers for things like declining shifts that don’t meet notice requirements, requesting predictability pay, raising concerns, or filing complaints.

These protections show up across major jurisdictions. For example:

  • New York City (fast food) makes it illegal to fire, reduce hours, or otherwise penalize employees for exercising their Fair Workweek rights.
  • Chicago and Philadelphia include similar language prohibiting retaliation against employees who assert their rights or participate in investigations.
  • Seattle also prohibits retaliation against employees for exercising their rights under the Secure Scheduling Ordinance.

The key takeaway is that compliance doesn’t end at scheduling. Even if your policies look right on paper, decisions like cutting hours, changing shifts, or disciplining employees after they raise concerns can create additional violations. 

Even if the scheduling issue itself seems small, how you respond can create a bigger problem. Retaliation can come with its own penalties.

Recordkeeping and documentation

Across many jurisdictions, employers are expected to keep track of work schedules, when they were posted, any changes made, and whether employees agreed to those changes. In some cities, records must be kept for a set period, often 2 to 3 years, and may be reviewed if a complaint or audit arises.

Good documentation can make a big difference. It helps show what actually happened in the event of a dispute, whether proper notice was given, and whether an employee consented to a shift change or clopening.

Some issues don’t come from the schedule itself. In some cases, they stem from being unable to prove what was communicated or agreed to. Keeping clear, consistent records across locations and managers can go a long way in reducing that risk.

Compliance Tips for Fair Workweek Ordinances

Implementing predictive scheduling laws into your operations can be complicated – it’s easy to overlook crucial details if your policies aren’t thorough. Here are some practical tips to help your business remain on the right side of the law.

Invest in the right software

Fair Workweek laws are just one of the many employment regulations that businesses must comply with. Many businesses invest in scheduling and payroll solutions to automate key areas like shift notifications and predictability pay to help ensure they meet Fair Workweek standards.

Workforce.com, a scheduling and payroll platform designed for hourly workforces, specializes in predictive scheduling and Fair Workweek compliance. Here’s how:

  • Shift scheduling and labor forecasting: Workforce.com uses data that predicts demand, including historical sales, foot traffic, booked appointments, and weather information.
  • Alerts and announcements: A critical part of Fair Workweek ordinances is ensuring employees are notified of posted schedules in time. Workforce.com makes this easy. Once a schedule is published, employees are notified in the app, and you can also print it. A robust communications feature lets you send announcements about schedule updates and live chat with staff and managers to maximize transparency and efficiency.
  • Pay rules: Assign pay rules to each employee, including any predictability pay they may be entitled to when certain conditions are met. Once set up, these rules are automatically applied during payroll, eliminating the need for manual entries and calculations.
  • Employee tags and classification: Assign tags to covered employees of predictive scheduling rules to ensure they receive the correct pay when predictability pay conditions are met. You’ll also receive automatic alerts when scheduling an employee at risk of working a clopening shift.
  • Shift swapping: Workforce.com’s shift swapping feature allows qualified staff to take on vacant shifts. This helps automate the process and provides a simple way to track and record shift changes.
  • Payroll: Another crucial part of complying with predictive scheduling laws is ensuring covered employees are paid what they’re owed, including applicable predictability pay. Workforce.com automatically computes wages, overtime, deductions, and predictability pay premiums based on your employees’ timesheets and hours worked.  
  • Recordkeeping: Workforce.com centralizes records, making them easily accessible. In the event of an audit or when you need to retrieve these records, everything is organized and readily available.

Stay abreast of ordinances in your place of business

Only a handful of cities have an ordinance for predictive scheduling, but this could change in the future. It’s best to stay informed about any updates or new regulations in your area.

Keeping up with changes is crucial if you’re in a city or state that has existing Fair Workweek laws. For example, New York City previously required fast food employers to provide a good faith estimate of work hours to new hires, but this was replaced with a mandate for regular week-to-week schedules.

Check with local and state governments regularly for updates on employment laws and scheduling practices to ensure your business remains compliant.

Train managers and HR teams

Managers and human resources are at the frontline of implementing predictive scheduling laws. Train them to understand the specifics of these ordinances and how to communicate them to staff. Provide them with resources to ensure that company policies align and comply with applicable labor laws.

Why fair scheduling practices matter

Fair scheduling practices are essential to any hourly workforce, regardless of whether predictive scheduling laws exist in your area. Compliance is important, but it shouldn’t be the only driver behind workplace policies. Strong scheduling practices also play a key role in supporting employees and maintaining a stable workforce.

A consistent and transparent scheduling system minimizes scheduling conflicts, reduces absenteeism, improves retention, and provides flexibility for hourly staff. This should be standard practice, whether mandated by law or not. 

Discover how Workforce.com helps you implement best practices with employee scheduling, payroll, and HR for hourly workforces. Book a demo today. 

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Full Throttle Operations: What Kart Expo 2026 Revealed About Scaling a Karting Business

Last May, Workforce.com headed to Michigan for Kart Expo 2026, where we showcased our software, connected with operators, and joined conversations shaping the future of karting and family entertainment.

One of our own, Joseph Cuellar, took the stage to discuss “The Hidden Drag Slowing FeGrowing Business”, a topic that felt especially relevant given many of the conversations happening throughout the event. More locations, larger fleets, and busier event calendars all have a way of exposing the cracks in manual processes and disconnected systems. At scale, what were once small inefficiencies become a real drag on the business. 

Kart Expo was an opportunity to better understand how operators run their businesses, where the industry is going next, and how Workforce.com provides value across these areas. 

Growth Brings New Challenges

Growth creates opportunity, but it also introduces new challenges. For karting operators, that means:

  • Staffing for demand that’s concentrated and unpredictable: Weekends, school breaks, and team racing events require coverage that’s hard to plan without the right tools. 
  • Scaling seasonal operations: Many karting venues run on a seasonal calendar, which means a recurring cycle of hiring, onboarding, and winding down that repeats every year.
  • Keeping up with fleets and facility demands: A growing fleet needs more hands. More locations means more karts to maintain, inspect, and rotate, adding more operational load on top of an already stretched team.

That’s why operational efficiency has remained a focal point across the industry. Operators are looking closely at the processes and systems that help them run operations, and whether these tools are reducing friction and enabling them to stay productive as they grow.

Also read: Global FEC Market Projected to Top $80B by 2033—What it Means for Operators

Growing Revenue Without Growing Overhead

Labor remains to be a top concern for karting operators, with it being one of the largest expenses in running the business. It’s easy to see why. Running a track means having the right people in the right spots at all times, such as marshals managing safety on a live track, grid staff getting drivers briefed, front desk keeping sessions turning over smoothly. There’s no trimming that coverage when safety is part of the equation. 

On top of that, much of the karting workforce is part-time, seasonal, and made up of younger workers. That means turnover is frequent, retraining is constant, and compliance with youth labor requirements adds another layer to manage. It all adds up, and the labor bill reflects it.  

As businesses grow, labor costs can quickly increase and put pressure on margins. During Kart Expo, we spoke with several operators who were managing time tracking, scheduling, HR, and payroll across separate systems. This can create gaps in information and require managers to constantly switch between platforms. Consolidating these functions into a single system can help reduce administrative work and keep labor costs from being the thing that slows down growth.

Operators are Investing in Better Systems

Operators are becoming more selective about the technology they invest in. They’re not necessarily looking for software with the longest feature list. They’re looking for systems that solve real problems, understand the way they operate, and scale alongside their business. 

For karting and FEC operators, that often means finding technology that simplifies day-to-day operations, supports the unique demands of their business, and remains easy to use as teams and locations grow.

Operators are increasingly interested in technology that supports both the guest journey and the day-to-day operation of the business. On one side, that means tools for bookings, waivers, memberships, and events. Likewise, they also prioritize systems that help managers handle staffing, time and attendance, payroll, and the administrative work that comes with running a team. It’s about finding tools that make the business easier to run, and not just adding another software.

Also read: Behind the Fun: How Workforce.com Powers Altitude Trampoline Park

Great Experiences Start with Great Operations

While the attractions and technology on display are always exciting, the long-term success of any venue ultimately comes down to execution.

Behind every great guest experience is a team responsible for keeping operations running smoothly day after day. Whether it’s staffing a busy Saturday, preparing for a large group event, or managing seasonal peaks, strong operations depend on having the right people in the right place at the right time.

Operators that will lead the pack are those that recognize the importance of investing in the people, processes, and systems that support growth. As they continue to invest in new attractions and technology, they’ll also need to ensure their teams have the tools to keep up.

That’s exactly why leading entertainment operators use Workforce.com to simplify workforce management, reduce administrative work, and help managers spend more time focused on guests. If you’re exploring ways to run a more efficient operation, we’d be happy to show you how it works. Get in touch with us today.

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Does your Payroll System Really Handle Blended Overtime?

Miscalculating weighted average or blended overtime may look like a payroll calculation challenge. In reality, it’s exposing a much bigger issue in how workforce operations are managed.

Most managers have seen some version of this before. 

A restaurant employee spends part of the week serving tables, then picks up shifts at the bar. A retail associate works the sales floor during the day and helps with inventory later in the week. A healthcare worker floats between units with a different hourly rate and shift differentials. 

At first glance, these seem like ordinary staffing decisions. But in reality, they create one of the most revealing tests of whether a workforce management and payroll system is functioning properly.

Uncovering the disconnect between operations and payroll

What looks like a payroll issue is often the result of operational information getting lost somewhere between scheduling, time tracking, and payroll processing.

To understand why, it helps to understand how weighted average and overtime pay works.

When an employee works on different roles with different rates of pay within the same week, overtime generally can’t be calculated using just one of those straight-time rates. Instead, employers must calculate a weighted average hourly rate based on the total pay and all eligible earnings for the week.

The formula itself is relatively straightforward, based on the total number of hours worked:

Total earnings across all rates á Total hours worked = Regular Rate of Pay

That regular rate is then used to determine the employee’s overtime premium, often calculated as half-time of the weighted average.

For example, imagine an employee working 30 hours as a server at $15/hour and 15 hours as a trainer at $20/hour. Their overtime isn’t simply calculated using $15/hour or $20/hour. Instead, payroll must first determine a weighted average regular rate for all 45 hours worked that week before calculating the overtime owed.

On paper, that’s a payroll calculation. In practice, it’s an operational data problem.

Consider a manager who knows an employee worked three shifts as a server, two shifts in the back of house, and one weekend event shift at a premium rate. The manager understands exactly what happened operationally, but does the payroll system understand it too?

Weighted average overtime depends on more than total hours worked and the specific allocation of overtime hours. It depends on accurately capturing every role, rate, differential, and premium—accounting for specific exclusions like certain discretionary bonuses—that contributed to those hours throughout the workweek.

If any of that information gets lost along the way, payroll teams are left manually reconstructing schedules, timesheets, and pay rates just to calculate overtime correctly.

It’s not just about knowing the formula

Most discussions about weighted average overtime focus on compliance with FLSA and Department of Labor regulations. Did the calculation method use the correct overtime rate? Were the earnings included properly? Was the regular rate calculated correctly? These questions matter. However, they focus more on the outcome rather than the process. 

The bigger question is: How did the system arrive at the calculation in the first place? Payroll systems need to understand:

  • Which role was work
  • Where it was worked
  • When it was worked
  • Which rate applies
  • Which premiums apply

Weighted average and overtime calculations are fundamentally dependent on operational context. And operational context is exactly what many systems struggle to preserve. 

When systems lose context, people become the crucial layer

And it can be tricky. 

Many organizations believe they have an automated payroll process. But what they don’t realize is that what they have is a collection of systems connected by human intervention. 

Managers create schedules. Employees clock time. Payroll teams verify information for wage calculations. If there are gaps, corrections and adjustments are made. And when this is done manually, it becomes error-prone, which is where miscalculations start. 

Clearly, blended overtime simply exposes the problem because it requires more operational context than simpler payroll calculations. This results in an administrative burden in which managers spend time validating data, finance teams reconcile labor costs, and employees spend time questioning their paychecks. The business absorbs the cost in dozens of small ways that rarely appear on a balance sheet. 

Is your current system enough?

So the question is, can your current workflows keep pace?

If the answer is unclear, blended overtime may be exposing a broader workflow problem. 

Here are a few questions to help assess whether your current system can support blended overtime and the other payroll nuances that come with running a growing hourly workforce.

How connected is payroll to the rest of your workforce management system? 

When payroll issues arise due to blended overtime or weighted average rate calculations, it’s worth asking where the process actually breaks down. 

Is the issue really the formula? Or does the problem start earlier—in how schedules are built, how clock-in data is captured, how role changes are tracked, how shift differentials are applied, or how last-minute call-outs are handled? 

In many cases, payroll is only where the error becomes visible. The mistake itself often starts upstream. 

That’s why disconnected workflows pose such a risk. If one system handles scheduling, another handles clock-ins, another manages employee records, and another processes payroll, every handoff becomes a potential failure point. 

The result is a workflow that may appear functional on the surface but still depends on people to catch what the system failed to preserve. 

For blended overtime, the context matters. Payroll needs to know not just how many hours someone worked, but what work they performed, where they performed it, and what rate is applied. 

Also read: How Time Tracking Systems Help (or Hurt) Wage Compliance

How quickly can managers and payroll teams spot issues? 

A strong payroll workflow should not rely on teams discovering problems at the very end of the pay period. If that often happens in your organization, that’s a big red flag. 

Does someone always have to chase missing information or reconcile discrepancies? Such instances may be manageable once or twice. However, if it happens every pay cycle, that’s a sign that the system is not doing enough and manual steps have creeped into what’s supposed to be an automated process.

The better question is not just, “Can we fix the error?” It is, “Why did the error make it this far?”

How much is the current workflow really costing you? 

The cost of payroll technology is not limited to subscription fees. 

The real cost includes the time managers spend reviewing timesheets, the hours payroll teams spend correcting data, and the productivity lost to manual workarounds. Then there are higher-stakes costs: back payments, penalties, compliance exposure, employee distrust, and potential wage claims. 

Multi-rate overtime makes these costs more visible because it depends on accurate data from various points in the workforce process. If those inputs are incomplete or fragmented, maintaining payroll accuracy becomes harder as the business grows.

What guardrails exist before payroll closes? 

A major warning sign is only discovering payroll issues at the end of the pay cycle. By then, teams are correcting problems under pressure instead of preventing them in real time. This becomes especially risky with blended overtime because the final calculation depends on the roles worked and the rates applied.

Your system should help prevent mistakes before they reach payroll. 

For example, can the system flag when an employee clocks into the wrong role? Can it identify when a timesheet does not match the scheduled shift? Can it automatically apply the correct rate when someone works in a different role? 

As you evaluate your current system, remember that the goal is to keep data accurate, from the moment the schedule is created to the moment the paycheck is finalized. 

Can the system scale as operations become more complex? 

A process that works for one location may not work for 10. A payroll workaround that is manageable with 30 employees can become a serious liability with a workforce of 300. 

Any payroll system can process pay, but the really powerful ones are those that understand the work behind the pay, regardless of business size.

The real question goes beyond blended overtime

Weighted average and blended overtime isn’t just testing whether your payroll system can do the math. It’s testing whether your workforce systems can accurately capture how work happens across your organization. Discover how Workforce.com brings scheduling, time tracking, HR, and payroll together in one platform, helping businesses eliminate manual workarounds and maintain payroll accuracy as operations become more complex. Book a demo today.

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Simplifying Payroll for New Hires (and How Workforce.com Makes it Easy)

Summary

  • The first paycheck is crucial to employee engagement and can make or break employee onboarding for new hires.
  • Processing the first paycheck begins before a new employee’s first day at work, and much of it involves gathering the necessary information.
  • With the right payroll system, you can cut down time spent on approving timesheets and payroll processing by 95%.

Many things can make or break a new hire’s experience, and one of them is how they receive their first paycheck. Get it right, and you set the tone for a smooth, professional experience. Get it wrong, and you risk confusion, frustration, and a shaky start.

So, what’s the big deal with payroll? Isn’t it just a routine process? In theory, yes. But in practice, it’s anything but simple and can be time-consuming, especially for hourly teams. First runs are where small mistakes can snowball: missing information, misclassified roles, and incorrect tax setup.

Successful payroll starts long before day one. It’s about having the right systems in place, from collecting forms to tracking hours, so that everything flows naturally from onboarding to payday. 

That’s where Workforce.com can help. It connects onboarding, scheduling, timesheets, and payroll in a single system. It keeps everything in sync so you never have to chase information, avoid duplicate data entry, eliminate costly errors, and dodge any surprises come payday. 

It provides a simple workflow that makes payroll easy for payroll teams and stress-free for new hires. 

Let’s take a closer look at how it works:

Get crucial payroll information before the first day

Smooth payroll management starts with onboarding, which begins before your new hire even clocks in. 

While onboarding often focuses on culture, policies, and setting expectations, the administrative side is just as important, especially when it comes to payroll. This is where you gather key details such as tax documents, bank account info, and employee data and set job classifications and pay rates. If you go about this manually, you’re opening the door to delays, data entry mistakes, and miscalculations when processing payroll. Something as small as a missing form can derail a first paycheck.

That early setup becomes especially important in fast-moving, hourly environments. At Altitude Trampoline Park, onboarding is how managers make sure everything is completed before new hires ever clock in.

“When I do their application, I send them their onboarding right away. They submit their I-9 and bank details, and that allows me to schedule them,” says Bria Stuckey, General Manager.

Beyond initial paperwork, her team also tracks certifications and training milestones in the same system, ensuring employee records stay accurate over time and that pay changes, like raises tied to certifications, are applied correctly in payroll.

Workforce.com makes onboarding fully digital. New hires enter their own employee information directly into the system. No double-entry or unnecessary paperwork. Tax forms, direct deposit details, and personal data all sync instantly with payroll.

If details are missing, managers are alerted and ensure that the required information is lodged before payday or even a new hire’s first day.

Pro tip: Start onboarding as soon as the offer’s signed, not the first day on the job. 

Also read: Creating a Better Onboarding Process for Hourly Staff

Download Free Template: Employee Onboarding Checklist

Set up pay rates and classifications in one place

Misclassification is a significant cause of payroll errors. For new hires, it’s essential that employers set this up correctly the first time.

With Workforce.com, everything lives in one place. You can assign pay rates, overtime rules, and employee classifications in a single system. You can also customize payroll data if needed, especially for more complicated work structures, such as employees taking up shifts at different sites or working two different roles with varying pay rates.

Need to make a change down the line? Update the info in one place, and it’s reflected instantly across schedules and payroll.

In addition, business owners get proactive tools that help catch issues before they become problems and minimize the administrative burden. Workforce.com shows how much each shift will cost as schedules are built, so there are no surprises during payroll processing. If an employee is about to be scheduled overtime, the system flags it immediately, giving you a chance to review it. It also alerts you if a rest break hasn’t been scheduled, helping you avoid compliance issues, additional payouts or violations.

Track accurate employee hours

Payroll mistakes often come from incorrect or incomplete timesheets. It can be tricky, especially if the employee joined in the middle of a pay period.

Workforce.com streamlines time tracking. Employees clock in and out through a mobile app (either on their phones or a device set up in the workplace), and their hours are instantly captured and fed into digital timesheets; no manual data entry is required. Both managers and employees can view and verify timesheets at any time, making it easy to catch and correct discrepancies early.

Also read: What is employee self-service? [Guide]

Missed a clock-in? The system alerts managers in real-time, so they can check in with staff and make quick corrections well before payroll is due. You’ll also get notifications for potential overtime or missed breaks, helping you stay compliant and avoid unplanned costs.

You’ll never have to ask, “Did we get their hours in correctly?” because you know you do. You can spot issues mid-cycle, not the eleventh hour, so payroll runs smoothly.

Automate deductions and tax withholdings with payroll software

Accurate payroll and clear pay breakdowns build trust from day one. But without the right system, deductions can be easily miscalculated, especially with an hourly team. 

Workforce.com’s payroll solution provides automation and takes the guesswork out of managing every type of deduction. Mandatory payroll taxes and withholdings, like federal, state, and local taxes, are automatically applied based on W-4 data collected during onboarding. Pre-tax and post-tax deductions are just as easy to configure. Employees receive automatically generated pay stubs with a clear breakdown of their gross pay, deductions, and take-home pay.

Also read: What are different payroll deductions? Taxes, benefits, and more

Download free template: Payroll Deduction Authorization Form

Pre-approve data and preview pay summaries

Payroll becomes stressful when pay information is inaccurate or when it’s verified too late in the process. Workforce.com helps you stay ahead by reviewing and approving data as it comes in. As shifts wrap up, you can instantly verify timesheets, check for missing logs, and receive alerts for anything that needs your attention so that nothing slips through the cracks. 

You’ll also get a clear, intuitive payroll preview that highlights exactly what’s ready to go and what still needs fixing. Because everything—scheduling, timesheets, pay rates, and deductions—lives in one system, resolving discrepancies is fast and straightforward. No switching between platforms. No chasing down spreadsheets.

Get payroll processing right from day one

The first paycheck isn’t just about getting paid. It’s a crucial moment in the new hire experience. It shows whether your business is organized or not. New employees notice and payroll is one of the clearest indicators of whether you’ve got your systems together. 

That’s why an all-in-one platform matters. Shipley Do-Nuts learned this firsthand when they switched to Workforce.com. Before, they were juggling four separate systems: one for onboarding, another for clock-ins, a third for scheduling, and a fourth for running payroll.

“Integrating all of those together has saved us so much time. It takes me about 95% less time than before, Shelly Archer, Human Resources Manager at Shipley Do-Nuts, shares. 

Want to see how Workforce.com works? Learn more about Shipley Do-Nuts’ success with Workforce.com, or book a demo today.


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Global FEC Market Projected to Top $80B by 2033—What it Means for Operators

Summary:

  • The global FEC market could exceed $80B by 2033, with demand growing for both classic attractions and newer immersive experiences.
  • Operators are expanding attractions and exploring new ways to increase revenue and margins.
  • Behind the scenes, workforce and operational efficiency are more critical than ever to staying competitive.

The family entertainment industry (FEC) is poised for significant growth, with market projections estimating the sector could exceed $80 billion by 2033. In fact, in 2025 alone, the global market is worth $38.13B, highlighting the scale of the opportunity ahead.

Analysts attribute this projected growth to the expansion of venues that combine arcades, dining, immersive games, and live entertainment. At the same time, demand for social, in-person experiences continues to rise, drawing families and younger consumers away from screens and toward shared activities.

Gearing up for new revenue opportunities

Family entertainment centers have long been known for classic attractions such as arcade games, bowling alleys, and active play areas. But as the industry evolves and younger audiences become increasingly tech-savvy, some venues are introducing newer technologies such as VR escape rooms, interactive art installations, augmented reality arenas, and esports experiences.

That said, capitalizing on this growth doesn’t always mean making large investments or introducing new attractions immediately. In many cases, it starts with taking a closer look at existing operations and identifying opportunities to unlock additional revenue streams or better protect margins.

At its core, it always comes back to the guest experience. Sometimes, small operational adjustments can improve margins without compromising quality. For example, operators may review their food and beverage offerings to see whether menu changes could improve profitability while maintaining, or even enhancing, guest satisfaction.

Some venues are also finding ways to generate additional revenue from the space they already have. Adding small arcade sections, for instance, can help improve guest retention and attract new visitors. Even simple additions, such as claw machines or new video games, can make productive use of underutilized areas within a venue. 

But beyond identifying these opportunities for growth, there is one critical area operators must focus on to fully capitalize on the industry’s next phase.

As FECs grow, operations become the real test

Rapid growth often brings operational growing pains. Even under normal circumstances, running a family entertainment center already involves navigating complex challenges around labor, scheduling, compliance, and payroll.

As operators invest in new attractions and guest experiences, it’s just as important to re-evaluate the systems that support day-to-day operations, particularly those used for staff scheduling, labor forecasting, and payroll.

Let’s take a look at several key areas operators should consider when assessing their current systems. These factors can help determine whether adjustments are needed—or whether it’s time to adopt a new platform.

Ease of use

It may sound obvious, but the usability of a system is often overlooked. Many FEC managers and operators wear multiple hats, handling everything from scheduling to daily operations. Because of this, ease of use should be a top priority. At the same time, today’s workforce is highly comfortable with technology and expects tools that are simple and intuitive.

“I handle scheduling, hiring, and letting people go. I make sure everyone’s timesheets are correct and manage the day-to-day operations, from the games and restocking to talking with parents. I do it all,” shares Bria Stuckey, General Manager at Altitude Trampoline Park.

Also read: Behind the Fun: How Workforce.com Powers Altitude Trampoline Park

Without the right system, frontline managers can find themselves pulled away from the floor and from their primary responsibility: ensuring guests have the best possible experience and that operations run smoothly.

When evaluating your current systems, consider how quickly employees can learn to use them. For example, how long would it take a new hire to clock in and out, submit leave requests, or access their timesheets and pay stubs? The same applies to managers responsible for scheduling shifts, approving timesheets, or managing payroll.

If your system requires extensive training, constant handholding, or frequent manual workarounds, it may be time to reconsider how your technology supports your team.

Support for minor labor law compliance

FECs and attractions often employ younger staff, which adds another layer of labor compliance that operators must carefully manage.

“First off, youth labor laws are easy to miss. You need to know applicable labor laws and automate compliance,” shares Travis Kohlmeyer, General Manager at Workforce.com. “For example, in Chicago, minors under 18 can only work three hours on a school day and eight hours on a non-school day. During the school year, they can only work until 7 or 8 PM. So if school ends at 5 PM, you can’t even schedule them for more than two hours. If you don’t track this, it’s going to be a massive hit.”

Beyond work-hour limits, youth labor compliance can also include rules around break periods, rest times, and scheduling restrictions, which vary by state and industry. Having systems with built-in safeguards can help operators avoid costly violations.

Workforce.com for example, flags potential labor law violations as early as the shift scheduling stage. If a manager accidentally assigns a minor employee to a shift that exceeds legal limits, the system automatically alerts them.

“One of the more difficult parts of having a young staff is that they’re limited to how many hours they can work. Workforce.com helps me stay compliant with minor labor laws whenever they can’t work. I really do like that it tells me if I can’t schedule somebody, and it won’t even allow me to schedule them,” Bria shares. 

Tracking certifications and training

In FECs, keeping track of staff certifications and training is critical, especially as venues add new rides, equipment, and attractions.

Operators should have a clear way to record certifications within each employee’s profile and ensure those qualifications are reflected when assigning shifts or responsibilities.

Workforce.com enables managers to track certifications directly within employee profiles. Palace Playland has found this feature particularly helpful.

Workforce.com lets you do this, and Palace Playland has benefited greatly from it. “Anytime somebody is trained or authorized to operate a ride, we add it to their profile,” shares Maegan Achenbach, Palace Playland’s Vice President. “When you’re looking at your staff list, it’s really easy to just hover over it and see who is qualified to operate what.”

Also read: 5 Common FEC Challenges + How Workforce.com Solves Them

Labor forecasting and demand-based scheduling

Labor forecasting is another area that can significantly impact an FEC’s bottom line. Labor is often one of the largest variable costs involved in operating a family entertainment center.

To manage labor effectively as the business grows, operators need systems that accurately forecast staffing needs and help them avoid both overstaffing and understaffing.

Workforce.com provides forecasting tools designed for businesses with unpredictable demand, such as FECs. The system analyzes multiple data points to estimate the number of employees needed per shift and per day.

These data points can include historical sales data, scheduled events, private bookings such as birthday parties, local events or festivals, expected foot traffic, weather forecasts, and other factors that influence demand. 

[insert product image of demand-based scheduling here.]

Time tracking and managing last-minute call-outs 

Family entertainment centers operate in fast-paced environments, so managers need full visibility into their teams throughout the day.

Workforce.com provides a centralized platform where managers can see who is clocked in, who is running late, and who is about to end their shift. The system also helps manage last-minute call-outs by enabling managers to quickly identify qualified replacements.

Importantly, these replacements are still validated against factors such as certifications and labor-hour restrictions.

With this level of visibility and automation, managers can stay focused on running the venue instead of scrambling to resolve time and attendance issues or unexpected scheduling changes. 

Paying staff accurately

Because FEC teams often include employees with different wage structures and compliance requirements, payroll can quickly become complicated.

Workforce.com’s payroll software is designed specifically for hourly teams. Because it operates within the same platform as onboarding, scheduling, time tracking, and HR, payroll calculations automatically use accurate, up-to-date data.

One common payroll challenge is that data often lives across multiple systems. Timesheets may exist in one platform, schedules in another, and employee records somewhere else entirely. This fragmentation increases the risk of errors and forces managers to spend significant time reconciling information.

Using a centralized system helps reduce payroll processing time, improve accuracy, and minimize the risk of compliance issues.

The all-in-one platform for FECs

The outlook for the FEC industry is promising, but sustained growth requires strong operational foundations. To keep pace, operators need reliable systems to manage scheduling, labor compliance, and payroll across their teams.

Workforce.com helps FEC and amusement businesses optimize labor, ensure accurate employee pay, and improve overall operational efficiency. Built specifically for hourly workforces, the platform is designed to address the realities of running venues staffed by a mix of part-time employees, minors, and team members with different certifications and roles.
Discover how Workforce.com can help your business stay ahead. Book a call today.

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How Time Tracking Systems Help (or Hurt) Wage Compliance

Summary:

  • Wage and hour lawsuits often stem from uncaptured work time, not from missing punches.
  • Because labor laws define “hours worked” differently across jurisdictions, how time tracking systems are configured matters.
  • The right time tracking software helps surface gaps early and reduces compliance risk.

The most expensive wage claims don’t always come from missed punches. Sometimes, they come from an employer’s failure to track compensable time according to labor laws. For organizations, the challenge is operationalizing those requirements through how time tracking systems are set up. 

How untracked work could turn into a lawsuit

A recent wage settlement illustrates how everyday tasks not recorded as work time can expose employers to serious legal risk.

In a case involving a Target distribution center operations in New Jersey, a group of hourly, non-exempt employees alleged they were not compensated for time spent on required activities before and after their scheduled shifts. According to the complaint, workers were required to complete pre-shift activities—including passing through mandatory security screenings and walking long distances from facility entrances to their assigned workstations—before clocking in. After clocking out, employees had to walk back through the same controlled areas and security checkpoints before leaving.

The plaintiffs argued that the time spent on these activities should be considered hours worked under applicable wage laws and that excluding this time from pay calculations resulted in lower wages and incorrect overtime amounts..

Target denied the allegations and maintained that these activities were not compensable. Nonetheless, to avoid protracted litigation and ongoing risk, the company agreed to a $4.6 million settlement covering eligible current and former workers at the affected New Jersey facility.

Also read: Time Clock Rounding: Best Practices & Compliance Risks

Why configuration matters

When wage and hour lawsuits make headlines, it’s easy to assume the issue stems from outdated or manual systems. In reality, most large employers already use automated time tracking. Employees clock in and out, and hours are recorded consistently.

The risk tends to emerge elsewhere. It often comes down to how time tracking systems are configured, and whether the policies built into those systems reflect how work actually happens on the ground.

Labor laws are not always intuitive, and day-to-day operations don’t neatly map to the fine print of wage regulations. Oftentimes, compliance issues surface when required activities fall outside what systems are set up to capture. And those gaps go unnoticed.

That challenge is compounded by the way wage laws are structured. Federal wage law draws a relatively narrow line around what counts as paid work. Many state laws draw a wider one. As a result, activities such as security screenings or walk time, may be unpaid under federal rules, but still create liability under state law.

Platforms like Workforce.com are built with this reality in mind. They provide guardrails that support accurate time capture, consistent policy enforcement, and clear documentation across the workforce. That level of visibility is critical for day-to-day operations, especially when reviewing policies, preparing for audits, or responding to legal or regulatory inquiries that require a clear record of how employee time was tracked and paid.

Why feedback becomes a crucial compliance guardrail

In theory, it may seem straightforward to treat activities like pre-shift and post-shift screenings or long walks through controlled areas as paid time. In practice, those decisions are rarely simple. Whether time should be counted often depends on how work is structured, how much control the employer exercises, and how applicable wage laws are interpreted at the state level.

That complexity is challenging to navigate in real time. Labor rules evolve, guidance can be unclear, and the way work actually happens day to day doesn’t always match written policies or out of the box system configurations.

This is where employee feedback becomes a powerful compliance guardrail. By giving employees a structured way to share feedback at the end of a shift, organizations gain visibility into what actually occurred during the workday. Patterns like required activities outside scheduled hours or delays that extend time on site can surface quickly.

Catching these signals early allows employers to review configurations, clarify policies, and address issues before they escalate into formal complaints, investigations, or costly wage and hour disputes.

Ultimately, wage compliance issues surface most visibly in payroll. When time tracking doesn’t reflect the work, those gaps affect pay calculations, regular wages, and overtime.. By the time issues show up in payroll, the risk has already compounded. That’s why accurate time capture and system configuration are so critical.

Also read: 5 Tips to Simplify Overtime Calculations

Using the right technology to track time and stay compliant

Staying compliant ultimately comes down to visibility and consistency. Employers need systems that accurately capture time and surface potential issues before they escalate.

Workforce.com brings these capabilities together in a single platform. It allows organizations to track employee time accurately, configure rules based on their policies and applicable labor laws, and gather shift-level feedback that provides insight into day-to-day operations.

At the core is Workforce.com’s time and attendance tracking, which supports accurate time punches, and helps teams monitor common risk areas. The platform can flag missing time logs, missed breaks, and approaching hour thresholds. This allows managers to address issues in real time rather than after the fact.

Alongside time tracking, Workforce.com’s shift feedback tools give employees a simple way to rate their shift and share comments on what worked and what didn’t. Over time, this feedback can surface patterns that indicate policy gaps or potential compliance issues, allowing employers to review configurations and make proactive adjustments.

Wage and hour compliance is complex, particularly for organizations with large hourly workforces. But with the right technology in place, it becomes easier to align policies, systems, and day-to-day operations. Learn how Workforce.com helps hourly teams bring time tracking, scheduling, HR, and payroll together in one platform. Book a call today.

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A Year of Listening, Learning, and Building at Workforce.com

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to look back on some of the highlights from the year at Workforce.com.

Over the past year, we continued to invest in product improvements across the platform, earned industry recognition, and shared new customer stories. This lookback highlights moments that reflect Workforce.com’s evolution, setting the direction for how teams manage complex, hourly workforces.

Continuing to build the platform that hourly teams rely on

In 2025, Workforce.com shipped 150+ product updates focused on improving payroll accuracy, labor visibility, and how managers get work done day to day.

Rather than chasing isolated features, many of this year’s updates strengthened the systems customers rely on most: 

Stronger payroll guardrails

Throughout 2025, Workforce.com continued to strengthen pay checks and validation rules. This included clearer warnings, more consistent blocking behavior when data is invalid, and improved reconciliation when worked hours don’t match scheduled hours. 

Faster hiring and employee management

Hiring workflows were streamlined with bulk actions, resume summaries, and improved candidate review screens. We also strengthened HR tools to manage surveys, training, warnings, and employee records in a single place. 

Smarter reporting and workforce insights

Workforce.com continues to refine reporting capabilities in 2025, with dozens of new reports, added filters and columns, and improvements to how reports can be saved and accessed. Updates like saved reports on dashboards and more flexible grouping and filtering made it easier to monitor labor costs, sport trends, and answer key questions. 

Better control over labor costs

Updates throughout the year improved how labor costs are tracked across schedules, timesheets, and budgets. These improvements provide more precise comparisons between scheduled and worked hours and prevent unpleasant surprises at the end of the pay period. 

Hundreds of day-to-day usability improvements

Workforce.com rolled out a wide range of usability improvements to reduce friction for managers and admins. These included redesigned pages across HR, hiring, and time & attendance; expanded bulk actions and imports across payroll and reporting; and a steady stream of workflow refinements that make everyday tasks quicker and easier as teams scale.

Hearing directly from the teams we serve

This year, Workforce.com featured in-person customer stories, where we spent time with them on the ground and heard directly from the people using the platform every day. 

We visited Shipley-Donuts, Third Space Brewing, and Altitude Trampoline Park and spoke with operators and managers about how they run their teams day to day. Managers consistently emphasized the same results: significant time savings by streamlining everything in a single platform. 

Shipley Do-Nuts, for instance, relied on separate platforms for new hire paperwork, clocking in and out, scheduling, and payroll processing. Managing and integrating all these systems was time-consuming and inefficient.

“Integrating all of those together (in Workforce.com) has saved so much time. It takes me about 95% less time than before,” remarks Shelly Archer, Human Resources Manager at Shipley Do-Nuts.

Meanwhile, the team over at Third Space Brewing reported 100% time saved on verifying payroll data. “We definitely saved time from not having to reconcile numbers between two different platforms all the time,” shares Scott Passolt, Controller at Third Space Brewing. “Everything flows really easily. If we know the timesheets are correct, we know payroll is correct. I certainly have more confidence in the accuracy of the numbers. It has given us a lot of peace of mind that we didn’t miss something in moving numbers between systems.”

Bria Stuckey, General Manager at Altitude Trampoline Park, also shared the same sentiments, “What I like most about Workforce.com being all-in-one is that I can do everything right there. With other apps, we had to schedule in one system and then go into another application to fix timesheets. It was just a whole thing.”

Read more stories from the teams using Workforce.com.

Beyond the customer stories we featured this year, Workforce.com continued to receive positive feedback on independent review platforms like G2. Across reviews, customers frequently pointed to time savings from admin work and scheduling, clearer visibility into labor costs, fewer payroll headaches, and an overall experience that’s easy for both managers and frontline teams. Taken together, that feedback reinforces what we saw throughout 2025: when teams have better systems and simpler workflows, they spend less time fixing issues and more time running their business. 

Workforce.com’s progress in 2025 was also recognized across the industry, with accolades from Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp. These recognitions are driven by user reviews and ratings, making them a strong reflection of how customers experience the platform day to day.

Staying ahead in 2026 and beyond

As Workforce.com looks ahead to 2026, the focus is simple: keep building software that helps teams run better day to day. The challenges facing hourly workforces aren’t getting smaller, and neither is the need for systems that catch issues early, reduce manual work, and support teams as complexity grows.

In our HR and Payroll Trends for 2026 report, we break down what’s changing next across payroll, compliance, and automation.

Ready to see how Workforce.com can help you stay ahead? Book a demo today.