Minority Shift Workers More Likely to Face Unstable Schedules

(Bloomberg) -- The pandemic has worsened disparities between White and minority workers in the retail, food service and hospitality industries when it comes to schedule instability, according to new research.

Men and women of color were more likely than White men and women to say they had less than two weeks' advance notice of their schedules, according to a research brief from the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of California San Francisco. The percentages of workers of color reporting this are higher than before the pandemic.

Minority workers were also more likely to be on call, have shifts cancelled, or be scheduled for fewer hours than they wanted, though the numbers are comparable to pre-pandemic figures.

“People of color are overrepresented in the service sector and, among service sector workers, are disproportionately exposed to unstable and unpredictable work schedules,” said the researchers, part of a collective called the Shift Project.

Despite a record number of job openings giving some workers the upper hand two years into the pandemic, lower-wage employees have faced a lack of fixed schedules and paid leave. Those unpredictable shifts can have a ripple effect on their financial well-being, leading to higher workforce turnover and economic hardship due to income fluctuations, according to studies by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the Brookings Institution.

Variable shifts in the service sector, accounting for more than 23 million jobs, can also make it harder for parents to plan their weeks, or even work at all. In the U.S., nearly 1 million working women who left the labor force during the onset of the Covid-19 recession still haven't returned, in part because of the lack of affordable care.

The Shift Project found that parents' unstable work schedules were associated with upticks in school absences, sleep problems and worsening child health.

“We had assumed that because of the tight labor market and the renewed respect for essential workers during the pandemic, that things would have improved with workers' schedules, but that has not been the case,” said Elaine Zundl, research project manager for the Shift Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

During the pandemic, 67% of the men of color and 68% of the women of color surveyed said they had fewer than two weeks of notice for shifts. That compares with 62% for both White men and and White women. It's also up from 65% for both men and women of color before the pandemic. Researchers surveyed about 110,00 workers between the spring of 2017 and the fall of 2021.

When comparing White workers and those of color with similar characteristics at the same company, a gap in scheduling between the groups may be attributed to managers deciding shifts, “allowing an opportunity for conscious or unconscious biases and unequal treatment,” according to the researchers.

“This is such a pervasive issue and has a profound effect on workers' well-being and economic security,” said Zundl. “If you don't know what your schedule is, you're not going to know what your pay check is, you can't budget, you can't plan for child care. You can't do any of the basics that have to happen for you to be a fully functional person.”