Eastern · Restaurants
Restaurants scheduling laws in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania's statewide rules track the federal baseline, so the whole story here is Philadelphia. Its Fair Workweek ordinance, effective April 2020, is one of the strictest in the country for hospitality, retail, and food service — 14 days of notice, predictability pay for changes, and a paid premium for short turnarounds.
Last updated 2026-07. Statute citations linked inline. Not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Rules that affect your schedule
5 Pennsylvania rules to know.
Each rule includes the statute reference and how Weekwright helps you stay compliant. We focus on rules that affect the schedule itself — not every wage-and-hour topic.
Philadelphia Fair Workweek — 14-day advance notice
Phila. Code ch. 9-4600Covered employers must give written notice of an employee's schedule at least 14 days ahead. Coverage is narrow but catches chains: hospitality, retail, and food-service establishments with 250+ employees worldwide AND 30+ locations worldwide, franchises included.
How Weekwright helps
Publishing a week is an explicit, audit-logged action with a timestamp, so 'when was this posted' has an answer that does not depend on anyone's memory. Every subsequent change to a published week is logged with its before and after.
Philadelphia Fair Workweek — predictability pay
Phila. Code ch. 9-4600One hour of predictability pay at the employee's regular rate when the employer adds time to a shift or changes its date, time, or location with no loss of hours. Cancelling or cutting hours carries larger premiums. It is owed on top of ordinary wages.
How Weekwright helps
Predictability-pay liability is reconstructed from the audit log — what was published, what changed, and when — rather than rebuilt from memory at the end of the period. Weekwright does not compute the premium for you; it preserves the record you need to compute it.
Philadelphia Fair Workweek — 9 hours between shifts
Phila. Code ch. 9-4600Employees are entitled to at least 9 hours of rest between shifts spanning two workdays. Scheduling a pair without that gap requires the employee's written consent AND a $40 premium — the clopening rule, priced.
How Weekwright helps
MIN_REST_HOURS_BETWEEN_SHIFTS set to 9 with BLOCKING severity refuses the publish outright, which is the right default when the alternative costs $40 and a signature. Set it to WARNING instead if you genuinely intend to pay the premium, and the audit log records who accepted it.
Statewide: no state predictive-scheduling law
Outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has no predictive-scheduling requirement and follows the federal baseline of 1.5x beyond 40 hours in a workweek. A Pittsburgh or Allentown operator is not covered by the Fair Workweek rules above, and neither is a Philadelphia employer under the 250-employee or 30-location thresholds.
How Weekwright helps
Compliance rules are configured per organization, so a multi-city operator can run the strict Philadelphia rest rule for those locations without imposing it on the rest of the estate. MAX_HOURS_PER_WEEK covers the federal weekly baseline everywhere else.
Breaks are mandated for minors only
Pa. Child Labor ActPennsylvania imposes no meal or rest break requirement on adult employees. For minors the Child Labor Act is specific: no minor may be employed more than five hours continuously without an interval of at least 30 minutes, and no period shorter than 30 minutes counts as interrupting a continuous stretch — so two 15-minute breaks do not reset the clock.
How Weekwright helps
The 30-minute-minimum detail is the trap, and break punches carry their own start and end times so a too-short break is visible as a duration rather than just a tick. Attach a per-member rule to your under-18 staff and the conflict detector applies it to them without constraining everyone else.
Official sources
Citations link to the primary statute, ordinance, or agency page so you can verify against the original. This is research guidance, not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Pricing
Per seat. Predictable across states.
Compliance rules apply per location, so a chain operating in Pennsylvania and elsewhere runs each rule set independently.
Starter
For your first scheduled week.
$0/mo, billed annuallyStart free- 1 location, up to 20 employees
- Unlimited weekly schedules
- Time-off, swaps, templates
- Email support
- Most popular
Core
The agent writes your week.
$32/mo, billed annually · per locationStart free- Unlimited employees — hiring never changes your bill
- AI weekly drafts + gap fill
- Conversational scheduling chat
- Compliance rules engine
- Open shifts, swaps, templates
Pro
Core plus the answers.
$65/mo, billed annually · per locationStart free- Everything in Core
- Per-shift assignment explanations
- Cross-week fairness + reliability
- Proactive weekly manager briefing
- Attendance, coverage + break analytics
Business
For multi-location operators.
$82/mo, billed annually · per locationTalk to us- Everything in Pro
- + $99/mo platform fee
- SSO (Google Workspace)
- Audit retention 7 years
- Jurisdiction compliance baseline
- Priority support
Common questions
Pennsylvania restaurants FAQ.
What scheduling laws does Pennsylvania have for restaurants?
Pennsylvania's statewide rules track the federal baseline, so the whole story here is Philadelphia. Its Fair Workweek ordinance, effective April 2020, is one of the strictest in the country for hospitality, retail, and food service — 14 days of notice, predictability pay for changes, and a paid premium for short turnarounds. The most relevant rules for restaurants are: Philadelphia Fair Workweek — 14-day advance notice, Philadelphia Fair Workweek — predictability pay, Philadelphia Fair Workweek — 9 hours between shifts.
How does Weekwright help comply with Pennsylvania scheduling laws?
Weekwright ships with a configurable compliance rules engine. Pennsylvania-relevant rules (rest periods, consecutive-day limits, daily overtime caps) are checked at every shift create, move, and publish. The audit log captures every change for predictability-pay calculations and labor-board responses.
Does Weekwright automatically update when Pennsylvania labor laws change?
We track changes to the major scheduling-related laws (predictive scheduling ordinances, sick leave, daily overtime). Compliance rule defaults can be updated org-wide; we don't push silent changes — labor law is sensitive enough that we surface the diff first.
What about restaurants businesses outside Pennsylvania?
Weekwright is multi-jurisdiction friendly. Each location pins its IANA timezone and its own set of compliance rules — a chain operating in Pennsylvania and another state runs both rule sets independently, on the same dashboard.
Schedule restaurants compliantly in Pennsylvania.
Free for up to 10 employees. No credit card required.