No Swing Shifts

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Swing shifts are employed by businesses that stay open for 24 hours and usually involve covering the "swing" from morning to night. In certain businesses, the "graveyard" or night shifts are also defined as swing shifts. Generally speaking, any hourly shift that does not take place during typical daylight hours could fall into this category. Swing shifts are controversial in the workers' rights movement. On the one hand, they allow for families in which both parents work to avoid paying for childcare, as one parent can be at home during the day and the other at night. Graveyard and swing shifts can also be subject to increased pay due to the physical and mental toll of working overnight. On the other, swing shifts have been linked to increased risk for many health conditions as well as a shortened lifespan and reduced short- and long-term memory. For this reason, swing shifts have often been the subject of protest with workers arguing that businesses such as grocery stores should not stay open for 24 hours at the cost of hourly workers' safety.