Fellows

Susan J. Lambert is a professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago, and Director of the Employment Instability, Family Well-Being, and Social Policy Scholars Network (EINet). Lambert received a B.A. summa cum laude in Psychology from Eastern Michigan University, an MSW, and a Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Science (Organizational Psychology) from the University of Michigan.

Lambert’s research focuses on employer practices and how they shape the quality of hourly jobs, the lives of low-paid workers, and inequality in society. The sites for 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 US labor market. Lambert’s current research focuses on the implementation of new municipal-level ordinances regulating employers’ work scheduling practices in several US cities.

Her research is supported by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Washington Center for Equitable Growth. As a leading researcher on work schedules in hourly jobs, Lambert regularly advises policy organizations, labor groups, employers, and government officials on strategies to improve scheduling practices in ways that balance the needs of employers for labor flexibility with the needs of workers for stable and predictable work hours.