Despite the health of the US economy over the past two years, we can’t help but be concerned about the direction that some state and local legislative bodies are going relative to workforce mandates. Staying on the west coast for a moment, the state of Washington is considering a statewide restrictive scheduling mandate for the next (2019) legislative session. A legislative public hearing was held a week or so ago to begin the deliberation process for adopting the mandate on a statewide basis. At present, the city of Seattle is the only community in the state with the predictive scheduling mandate on the books. That being said, back on the east coast, the City of Boston is now the latest to consider adopting some sort of predictive scheduling mandate for private businesses.  City Councilor Michelle Wu introduced a “fair workweek” ordinance this past week that is being positioned as applying only to city workers. The rub however, comes in the fact that “covered employers” is defined as “the city of Boston and any firm, vendor, contractor, or supplier of goods. Six jurisdictions, including Seattle, New York City and the state of Oregon, require certain that retail, fast-food and hospitality employers set work schedules in advance and allow for mandatory rest breaks between shifts.