Bruce Hayes (born June 9, 1955) is an American linguist.

He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hayes works in phonology, and is well known for his book Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies, a typologically based theory of stress systems.

His research interests also include phonetically based phonology and learnability.

In 2009 Hayes was inducted as a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.