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.