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Warehouse Quota Notice Laws: Rhode Island Is the Newest Member of the Club

By Bruce Sarchet, Gregory Tumolo, and David Dixon

November 10, 2026
7 minute read

At a Glance

Rhode Island’s new warehouse quota notice law takes effect on January 1, 2027
The Rhode Island law continues an expansion of such laws that began in California in 2021
Employers with covered operations should prepare for compliance

In 2021, as the online retail industry was mushrooming, California passed a first-in-the-nation law requiring that employees working in certain warehouses and distribution centers be given advance notice of any productivity quotas, and further notice of any adverse employment actions resulting from a failure to meet a quota. As we noted at the time, “Much has been written about a possible ‘California contagion’ – that new laws that originate in California may eventually spread across the country.”

It has taken a while, but our prediction continues to be proven true. From 2022 to 2025, four other states adopted similar laws: New York (effective 6-19-23), Minnesota (effective 7-1-23), Washington (effective 5-31-24), and Oregon (effective 1-1-25). In 2026, two more states joined the club: Connecticut (effective 7-1-26), and most recently, Rhode Island.¹

Rhode Island’s new law is found at R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-61-1 et seq., the “Warehouse Worker Protection Act.”² Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed the Act into law on June 18, 2026. The Act takes effect on January 1, 2027.

Which Employees/Employers Are Covered by the New Rhode Island Law?

Rhode Island’s new warehouse quota notice law generally tracks the laws in the other six states. But there are some notable differences as well.

Like its predecessors in other states, Rhode Island’s new law applies only to non-exempt employees who work at “warehouse distribution centers,” at which the employer employs at least a defined number of employees, and only within operations identified by specific codes within the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).³ The specific NAICS codes listed in the Rhode Island law to define potentially covered operations are similar to the codes identified in laws enacted in other states. The Rhode Island law applies only to larger operations: those with 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center in the state or 1,000 or more employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the state.⁴ The law applies to the warehouse distribution operations of the operators of such businesses as well as staffing agencies and other third parties that provide labor to such operators.

What Does the New Rhode Island Law Require?

The law broadly defines a “quota” as a work standard where an employee is assigned or required to perform at a specified productivity speed or a quantified number of tasks or to handle or produce a quantified amount of material within a defined time period, and under which an employee may suffer an adverse employment action if they fail to meet the performance standard.⁵ This definition generally tracks the definition used in other state laws.

The new law requires covered employers to provide employees, upon hire, with a written description of any quota, and of any potential adverse employment action that may result from a failure to satisfy such quota. The notice must also inform employees of their right to request their individual work speed data, and the work speed data of other comparable employees at the facility. If an employer changes a quota, notice must be provided at least two days in advance, and no disciplinary action may be taken for failure to meet the quota until at least two days following the notice.

The law provides that quotas may not interfere with an employee’s right to take a meal break or to use the restroom (including reasonable travel time to and from the restroom). Further, quotas may not prevent compliance with occupational health and safety laws found “in the labor laws or department standards.”⁶ These provisions are also found in the laws of other states.

Unlike other state laws, the new Rhode Island law does not include a stand-alone recordkeeping requirement. However, employers in Rhode Island are generally required to retain similar records for a period of three years.⁷

Employees and former employees have the right to request and receive copies of prior notices and their personal work speed data, along with work speed data for comparable employees working in the same facility. Employers must respond to such requests within 21 days. Employees can make only one request every 90 days, unless there is a pending disciplinary action or the request is made at the same time an employee is being provided with an employee performance review.

Covered employers may not retaliate against employees who make requests for such information, or who take action to enforce their rights under the law. The law establishes a rebuttable presumption that any adverse action taken within 90 days following such action was retaliatory. After 90 days, the test reverts to a preponderance of the evidence standard.

What Are the Potential Consequences for Violations?

The Director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor is authorized to enforce the new law, and assess damages payable to employees, and civil penalties.⁸ Individual employees and former employees may bring an action for injunctive relief, and may be awarded costs and attorney’s fees.

What’s Next?

Rhode Island’s new warehouse quota notice law is set to go into effect on January 1, 2027. Employers in the warehouse and distribution center sectors with operations in the Ocean State should promptly consult with employment law counsel to evaluate whether they are covered by the new law, and, if so, develop a plan for coming into compliance.

¹ A bill that contains warehouse quota requirements remains pending under New Jersey’s two-year legislative cycle running through 2027. A warehouse quota bill in Illinois passed in January 2025 but was vetoed by the governor in March 2025, but a new bill was introduced in February 2026, containing expanded coverage to include “workers” rather than “employees” and more detail regarding civil penalties. While still technically alive, the bill has been dormant after March 2026. Bills containing warehouse quota requirements were also introduced during 2026 but did not become law in Delaware and Hawaii. Similar bills were unsuccessfully attempted in 2025 in Massachusetts and Georgia. A federal Warehouse Worker Protection Act, S.2613 and H.R. 4896, technically remains pending during the remaining days of the 119th Congress, but has been dormant in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee since July 2025.

² The new law emerges from several years of successive proposals in Rhode Island, including a 2023 proposal that stalled in committee, followed by increasingly developed versions in 2024 and 2025, including a 2025 bill that passed the Senate but did not become law.

³ The law applies to business operating under the following NAICS Codes: 493110 for General Warehousing and Storage; 423 for Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods; 424 for Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods; 454110 for Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses. Unlike the laws in some other states, the following NAICS codes are not specified in the Rhode Island law: 492110 for Couriers and Express Delivery Services; 452311 for Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters; 452319 for All Other General Merchandise Stores; and 444110 for Home Centers.

⁴ This is similar to the CA, WA, OR, and NY laws under which coverage may be triggered by 100 or more employees at a covered facility, and different from the 250-employee trigger under the MN and CT laws.

⁵ Employers might usefully consult their counsel about whether an “adverse action” could include not only traditional employment discipline, but other actions, such as being identified for layoff as part of a reduction in force, and if so, to evaluate whether to refer to this possibility in the notice.

⁶ The CA law contains a similar provision that a quota may not prevent compliance with “occupational health and safety laws.” Because CA maintains a federally approved OSH state plan, the verbiage appears to refer to CA’s occupational health and safety laws. The additional verbiage in the Rhode Island law that then also refers to such laws “in the labor laws or department standards” is not explained in the statute. Unlike CA, RI does not maintain a federally approved OSH state plan and its occupational health and safety laws are primarily governed by federal law rather than state law or department standards. Whether the term may be clarified in forthcoming rules or informal guidance from the Department of Labor and Training (DLT) remains to be seen.

⁷ Two Rhode Island statutes directly require retention of employee hours records for at least three years. Under the minimum wage recordkeeping statute, employers must keep records including the hours worked each day and each workweek for not less than three years. R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-12-12. Separately, the wage payment recordkeeping statute requires employers to keep accurate records of hours worked and wages paid each pay period and to retain those records for at least three years after the record is entered. R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-14-12.

⁸ While the civil penalties are not specifically identified in the statute, the law requires the Department of Labor and Training (DLT) to adopt rules to enforce the law, authorizes the Director of the DLT to assess damages payable to the employee as well as civil penalties. R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-61-7. As of the date of this publication, the DLT has not publicly announced a timeframe for rulemaking or published any related informal guidance.