Pacific · Restaurants
Restaurants scheduling laws in Washington.
Washington's centerpiece is Seattle's Secure Scheduling Ordinance (2017) for retail and food service with 500+ employees. The state also has paid sick leave for all workers and an annually-adjusted minimum wage.
Last updated 2026-05. Statute citations linked inline. Not legal advice — consult counsel for compliance audits.
Rules that affect your schedule
4 Washington 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.
Seattle Secure Scheduling — 14-day advance notice
Seattle Mun. Code §14.22Covered employers (retail or food-service with 500+ employees) in Seattle must post schedules at least 14 days in advance.
How Weekwright helps
Publish weeks ahead with one click; audit log captures every change after publication for compliance teams to review.
Compensation for last-minute changes
Seattle Mun. Code §14.22.060Adding a shift or extending an existing shift on short notice = 1 hour additional pay. Cancelling a scheduled shift with less than 24 hours notice = at least half the cancelled shift's wages.
How Weekwright helps
Bulk-modify and bulk-delete-week preserve the previous schedule in the archive — you can compute compensation owed from the diff, not from memory.
Right to rest between shifts (Seattle)
Seattle Mun. Code §14.22.040Employees can decline shifts scheduled less than 10 hours after the previous shift. Working through the rest period requires 1.5x pay.
How Weekwright helps
MIN_REST_HOURS_BETWEEN_SHIFTS preset enforces 10-hour rest as WARNING or BLOCKING per your tolerance.
Statewide paid sick leave
RCW §49.46.210All Washington employees accrue 1 hour of paid sick time per 40 hours worked, available for use after 90 days.
How Weekwright helps
Time-off requests with type 'Sick' flow into the conflict detector — proposed shifts on approved sick days flag automatically before publish.
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 Washington and elsewhere runs each rule set independently.
Starter
For your first scheduled week.
$0/mo, billed annuallyStart free- Up to 10 active employees
- Unlimited weekly schedules
- Time-off, swaps, templates
- Email support
- Most popular
Pro
For teams that schedule weekly.
$3.5/mo, billed annually · per seatStart free- Unlimited employees
- Multi-location dashboards
- Compliance rules engine
- Audit log + insights
- Open shifts + advanced swaps
AI
Pro plus the scheduling agent.
$6/mo, billed annually · per seatStart free- Everything in Pro
- AI weekly drafts + gap fill
- Conversational scheduling chat
- AI insights + weekly review
- Per-shift assignment explanations
Business
For multi-location operators.
$10/mo, billed annually · per seatTalk to us- Everything in AI
- + $99/mo platform fee
- SSO (Google Workspace)
- Audit retention 7 years
- Jurisdiction compliance baseline
- Priority support
Common questions
Washington restaurants FAQ.
What scheduling laws does Washington have for restaurants?
Washington's centerpiece is Seattle's Secure Scheduling Ordinance (2017) for retail and food service with 500+ employees. The state also has paid sick leave for all workers and an annually-adjusted minimum wage. The most relevant rules for restaurants are: Seattle Secure Scheduling — 14-day advance notice, Compensation for last-minute changes, Right to rest between shifts (Seattle).
How does Weekwright help comply with Washington scheduling laws?
Weekwright ships with a configurable compliance rules engine. Washington-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 Washington 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 Washington?
Weekwright is multi-jurisdiction friendly. Each location pins its IANA timezone and its own set of compliance rules — a chain operating in Washington and another state runs both rule sets independently, on the same dashboard.
Schedule restaurants compliantly in Washington.
Free for up to 10 employees. No credit card required.