By Chastity Lord, President and CEO, Jeremiah Program
A work schedule can determine whether a mother keeps her childcare, attends class, or makes it to a medical appointment. When that schedule changes with little warning, she has to rebuild all three arrangements while protecting the paycheck that pays for them. Employers should treat predictable scheduling as part of what makes a job sustainable.
For a single mother, the hours attached to a job are part of its compensation. A wage offer means less if she cannot estimate how many hours she will receive. A promotion can be difficult to accept if its schedule makes reliable childcare impossible. Evaluating job quality requires looking at the conditions that allow someone to stay employed and advance.
Consider a parent who has arranged care around a regular closing shift. An added morning shift may require a different caregiver and another transportation plan. A canceled shift can leave her paying for care without earning the income she expected. These are ordinary planning problems with consequences that extend well beyond the workplace.
At Jeremiah Program, our model brings together support for mothers’ college and career goals, early childhood education, housing, empowerment, and community. That approach recognizes how closely a parent’s opportunities and a child’s opportunities are connected. Employers make decisions every day that affect whether those pieces can fit together.
Business leaders should examine their assumptions about single mothers. In 2025, mothers with marital statuses other than married, spouse present had a labor force particip
ation rate of 78.1%, compared with 72.1% for married mothers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That first group includes never-married, divorced, separated, and widowed mothers, as well as married mothers whose spouses are absent. Designing schedules around their responsibilities can help workers across a business.A randomized experiment at 28 Gap stores in Chicago and San Francisco during 2015 and 2016 found that a package of scheduling changes increased productivity by 5.1% and sales by 3.3%. Published in Management Science in 2022, the findings suggest that responsible scheduling can support business performance. Results from one retailer do not guarantee the same gains everywhere.
Employers can begin by asking employees how far in advance they receive schedules, how often shifts change, and whether the hours they receive match the hours they need. Those answers should come from workers across shifts, including people who cannot attend a daytime listening session. Managers should also examine whether employees feel able to describe a problem without losing future opportunities.
The next step is to make expectations clear. Publish schedules far enough ahead for employees to arrange their lives. Set a consistent process for communicating changes. Give workers a practical way to share availability and request or exchange shifts. Train supervisors to use that process consistently, so access does not depend on which manager happens to be working.
Predictability also requires attention to the number of hours offered. An employee may know her schedule in advance and still struggle if her income varies sharply from week to week. Employers should compare the hours discussed during hiring with actual assignments, then identify avoidable gaps. Asking workers what they need is a better starting point than assuming every employee wants the same arrangement.
Businesses should measure the results. Track last-minute changes, unfilled shifts, retention, and employee feedback alongside operating performance. When a change causes problems, investigate the reason and adjust. A useful policy needs a manager who can carry it out and workers who can rely on it.
Genuine emergencies and demand fluctuations will happen. Leaders can plan for those pressures by building coverage procedures and
involving employees before a crisis arrives. A routine shortage should prompt a staffing review and a concrete plan for how the team will cover it without repeatedly disrupting parents’ arrangements.Black business leaders have an opportunity to make advancement more accessible through the jobs they create. Predictable schedules give workers room to pursue education, care for their families, and remain dependable colleagues. A mother should be able to understand what a job will require and build a life around it. Employers can help make that possible by treating her time as something worth planning for.
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