The Best Cities for Part-Time Workers

In Seattle, a McDonald’s employee, frustrated and failing to make ends meet on a schedule that capped her hours at 25 per week, took a second job at an assisted living facility in 2010. To get back and forth between her shifts, she had to take two buses. Transit ate into time with her family—which could have been avoided if she been given full-time hours at McDonald’s like she requested.

For Sejal Parikh, the executive director of Working Washington, a labor organization based in Seattle, the McDonald’s worker’s story was upsetting, but unsurprising. In a recent conference hosted by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Parikh detailed the logistical acrobatics she heard from other hourly workers in Seattle: Some had to drop out of school due to unpredictable schedules; others missed payments on bills because they couldn’t secure the shifts they needed to cover expenses.