Monday - Friday 9AM – 6PM EST
A zero-hour contract records an employment arrangement with no guaranteed minimum hours. Answer a few guided questions and download a customizable version that is ready to sign.
Choose the state or form type you need to start.
Answer a few simple questions to customize your form.
Download or print your custom document in PDF or Word.
A zero-hour contract is an employment agreement with no guaranteed minimum hours. An employer offers work as it becomes available, and the worker takes it or declines it.
The label sees more use outside the United States, where comparable arrangements usually go by on-call, casual, or as-needed employment. Whichever name it carries, the document does the same job, recording that hours are not promised and setting terms for the work that does happen.
Both sides gain clarity from it. Workers learn what to expect before committing, and employers avoid the assumption that accepting one shift creates an obligation to accept the next.
Written terms matter more here rather than less. When hours fluctuate and nobody promises anything, the areas most likely to cause a dispute are precisely the ones an informal arrangement leaves unsaid.
The mechanics look simple in principle and get messy in practice, so write them down.
Cover:
Cancellation terms deserve real thought. Somebody who arranged childcare and travel for a shift cancelled an hour beforehand has incurred genuine cost, and a clause covering that is fairer than silence.
Decide what happens when a worker consistently declines. Some employers drop people from the rota quietly, which breeds resentment, and stating the position openly works better than leaving it to interpretation.
Tip: Say plainly whether the worker may take other jobs. Restricting that while guaranteeing nothing is a term worth checking carefully before including it, since rules on exclusivity differ by jurisdiction.
This is where these arrangements most often go wrong.
Having no guaranteed hours does not make somebody self-employed. A zero-hour worker is usually an employee, carrying the same wage, tax, and record-keeping treatment as anyone else on the payroll, and using this document to sidestep that creates a problem rather than solving one.
The tests for employee status turn on control, integration, and how the work actually happens rather than on what the paperwork calls it. Those tests vary by jurisdiction and by which agency is asking.
Where the intention is genuinely to engage a contractor, use a contractor agreement instead. Mislabelled arrangements tend to surface later, usually at the least convenient moment.
Watch for drift as well. An arrangement that starts genuinely irregular can settle into a fixed weekly pattern over months, at which point the paperwork no longer matches reality. Review it periodically rather than filing it and forgetting.
Check the position with your state labor department or an employment attorney wherever there is doubt. Getting this wrong is expensive in a way that getting advice is not.
Our zero-hour contract template covers the sections below.
Name the employer and the worker, with the start date and job title.
State plainly that the employer promises no minimum and that neither side must offer or accept work.
Describe the method, the notice period, and how acceptance works.
Give the rate, the pay frequency, and the method for recording hours.
Describe the role and who supervises it.
Say what follows when either side cancels an agreed shift.
Set out what applies, including the method for calculating entitlement across variable hours.
Include the standard obligations that apply on every shift.
State the notice each side gives.
Both parties sign and date, each keeping a copy.
Several cities and states regulate variable scheduling directly, and those rules bite hardest on exactly this kind of arrangement.
Predictive or fair scheduling laws can require advance notice of shifts, compensation for late changes, and records of scheduling practice. Where they apply they override whatever a contract says, so check your state and your city before relying on the terms alone.
Wage obligations do not soften because hours are irregular. Pay for hours actually worked, overtime across a variable week, and employer record-keeping all come from law rather than from agreement.
Review the arrangement whenever a worker moves between locations. Scheduling and pay rules can change across a city boundary, and a contract drafted for one site may not fit another.
Benefits eligibility often turns on hours thresholds, which makes variable-hours workers a case to check rather than assume.
Tip: Keep clean records of offers made, shifts accepted, and hours worked. Variable-hours arrangements generate disputes about who offered what, and contemporaneous records settle them quickly.
A zero-hour contract binds both parties once signed, and an agreement of this kind generally needs no witness or notary.
Employment rules come from federal, state, and sometimes city law, and they differ considerably. Minimum pay, overtime, rest breaks, sick leave, scheduling notice, and employer record-keeping all vary. Check your state’s official website and your state labor department rather than relying on a general description.
Bear in mind that this term sees wider use outside the United States, and other countries regulate arrangements carrying the same name differently. Guidance written for one jurisdiction will not describe another accurately, so check the rules where the work actually happens.
Talk to an employment attorney before rolling this out across a workforce, or wherever classification is uncertain.
Start your zero-hour contract now and put the terms of an irregular arrangement in writing.
One place to build, sign, and manage documents.
