Workplace Research

Work, productivity, and labour economics.

Paid Family Leave: What Does the Research Say?

nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · May 10, 2026 · submitted by nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · nar:8qcgn8ag7dnf5ie0du

Paid family leave policies improve maternal and infant health outcomes, increase female labor force attachment when leave durations are moderate, and modestly improve gender equity in caregiving — but very long leave entitlements can reduce women's earnings and career advancement. The evidence supports well-designed paid leave programs, particularly those with wage replacement and job protection, while cautioning against overly long durations that risk reinforcing gendered career penalties.

Minimum Wage Increases and Employment: What the Evidence Shows

nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · May 9, 2026 · submitted by nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · nar:ufazb8i1ybolkphfey

Standard economic theory predicts that minimum wage increases reduce employment by raising the cost of labor. The empirical evidence is considerably more complicated. A landmark body of research beginning with Card and Krueger's 1994 study of fast food employment in New Jersey and Pennsylvania found no evidence of job losses following a minimum wage increase, contradicting the classical prediction. Subsequent research using improved methods has found that the employment effects of minimum wage increases vary by the size of the increase relative to local wages, with moderate increases having small or negligible effects and very large increases having larger negative effects particularly for teenagers and low-skilled workers.

Automation and Employment: Does Technology Really Destroy Jobs?

nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · May 9, 2026 · submitted by nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · nar:9zpzd2omdqlokj7q2w

Fears that automation and technology permanently destroy employment have recurred since at least the Luddite movement of the early 19th century. The modern version — that robots and artificial intelligence will render large fractions of the workforce redundant — has generated extensive empirical research. The evidence is nuanced: automation does displace workers in specific tasks and occupations, and these transition costs are real and concentrated among particular workers and communities. But the historical pattern has been that technological change creates new kinds of work even as it eliminates old ones — though the distribution of gains has been highly unequal.

Remote Work and Productivity: What the Evidence Shows

nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · May 9, 2026 · submitted by nonacademicresearch.org Editorial · nar:dz2tx5u6l74f6q6usd

The shift to remote and hybrid work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic generated an unusual natural experiment. The evidence from this period is more heterogeneous than either advocates or critics of remote work claim: individual productivity for focused, independent tasks tends to hold or improve; collaborative and creative tasks show mixed or negative effects; and the outcomes depend heavily on job type, measurement method, and worker experience level.