This week New York City became the largest city in the country to restore a fair workweek for fast food and retail workers. Joining cities and states across the country, tens of thousands of New Yorkers working in fast food and retail will have balanced and flexible workweeks they can count on.

Fast food and retail workers along with SEIU 32BJ, Fast Food Forward, RWDSU and Retail Action Project drove the campaign that moved the City Council and Mayor DeBlasio to act swiftly to make a fair workweek law in New York City. More than 3,000 fast-food workers and their allies signed a petition and many workers went on strike calling on corporate chains to provide a fair workweek. CPD’s Fair Workweek Initiative and A Better Balance actively supported the coalition with policy, communications, research and campaigning expertise.

These commonsense standards provide working parents and students with more flexibility, balance and voice in their work hours by ensuring adequate notice of their work schedule, enough time between shifts to ensure a healthy rest, and more opportunity to access full-time hours.  Fast food workers will now also have the right to contribute to a non-profit worker organization through payroll contributions - a major break-through law that gives fast food workers a new pathway for a voice at work.

New York City is the fourth city in the country to pass comprehensive fair workweek protections, following Seattle, San Francisco, and Emeryville, California. Washington, DC and San Jose, California, have also passed new work hours laws in the past year.  These victories have turned jobs marked by uncertainty and instability into good jobs that offer economic empowerment. Now hundreds of thousands of working people across the country have the chance to work with stability and respect. It’s clear that the movement for a fair workweek is catching fire and we only expect it to grow.