Susan Lambert BW

Susan Lambert

  • Title: Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
  • Education: PhD, University of Michigan; MSW; University of Chicago; BA, Eastern Michigan University
  • Joined UChicago faculty: 1987
  • slambert@uchicago.edu

Susan Lambert

Susan Lambert studies how employer practices shape the quality of low-level jobs, the lives of low-paid workers, and inequality in society.

The sites for Prof. Lambert’s research span both production and non-production industries, including retail, hospitality, financial services, transportation, and manufacturing, and both publicly held and family-owned firms.

Her research includes comparative organizational case-studies and randomized workplace experiments as well as analyses of national data on the prevalence of precarious scheduling practices in today’s U.S. labor market. Prof. Lambert just completed a randomized experiment at Gap, Inc., which assessed the potential effects of an intervention designed to improve multiple dimensions of employees’ work schedules (schedule stability, predictability, control and adequacy) on both business and employee outcomes.

Prof. Lambert regularly advises policy advocates, labor groups, employers, and government officials on strategies to improve scheduling practices in hourly jobs.

Lambert Stories

Work scholar finds good labor practices are good for business

UChicago Prof. Susan Lambert retires after three decades of groundbreaking research on work scheduling

A Find at Gap: Steady Hours Can Help Workers, and Profits

Assoc. Prof. Susan Lambert finds stable schedules for workers improves productivity, sales


A Find at Gap: Steady Hours Can Help Workers, and Profits

Assoc. Prof. Susan Lambert finds stable schedules for workers improves productivity, sales


Steady Jobs, With Pay and Hours That Are Anything But

Assoc. Prof. Susan Lambert explains importance of stable work schedules


What Follows the Fight for $15?

Assoc. Prof. Susan Lambert discusses financial pressures and social consequences of on-call scheduling


Minneapolis fair-scheduling ordinance would be the most sweeping in the country

Assoc. Prof. Susan Lambert gives expert testimony on the benefits of a statewide fair-scheduling law


Minneapolis Post

Next Goal for Walmart Workers: More Hours

Article cites Prof. Susan Lambert, who explains how short shifts makes it harder for part-time employees to ‘move up the ladder’


In Service Sector, No Rest for the Working

Article cites Prof. Susan Lambert, who says scheduling workers with little time between shifts ‘is particularly harmful’


CONTENT TYPE
Filter by content type

Media Contact

Evan Williams

Media Relations Analyst

ACN logo

Expertise

Family, Employment