Unpredictable and irregular work schedules are a well-known aspect of labor conditions in the retail and food service sectors of the US economy (Lambert, Fugiel, & Henly, 2014). This issue is now being addressed by advocates of what is commonly known as the Fair Workweek policy. Despite the variance among the policies that have passed in different municipalities, the goals of this policy are threefold: first, to provide clear guidelines for the scheduling of workers, second, to promote wage stability, and third, to generate a more socially just work-life balance for workers these industries. This paper aims to investigate what protections subsequent versions of this policy attempts to create in relation to what workers in these industries are experiencing. In order to investigate this burgeoning policy initiative, in-depth semi-structured interviews with retail and food service workers were conducted over the summer of 2017 in the Southern California region. While initial findings suggest that features of the Fair Workweek policy can lead to more stable wages, there are aspects of social reproduction that the policy has not or cannot address
