This article accompanies Balancing Work/Life by the Hour.

Flexible Workplace Solutions for Low-Wage Hourly Workers: A Framework for a National Conversation provides a thorough examination of the challenging schedules faced by many of today's workers and provides a set of practical solutions for employers and policymakers looking to improve these challenging schedules.

The executive summary offers some insights into the ways organizations can offer flexible work arrangements to employees, including shift-swapping, team scheduling, self scheduling, honoring worker preferences to work certain shifts or certain days, and seeking volunteers first for overtime.

Public-sector and private-sector efforts could have far-reaching implications for low-wage workers and their families, not only for those in the workforce now, but also for those who are currently out of the workforce and might have an easier time reentering if flexibility were a more common feature of low-wage jobs.