Eileen Appelbaum joined Rutgers University as Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work in March 2002. She was promoted to Professor II July 2006. Formerly she was Research Director at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. and Professor of Economics at Temple University. She spent several summers as a Guest Research Fellow at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). In 1995 Dr. Appelbaum was elected to a three-year term on the Executive Board of the IRRA, and from 2000-06 she served on the IRRA Editorial Committee.From1996 to 2005 she served on the Advisory Council of the WZB. In 2000 Dr. Appelbaum served on the National Academy of Sciences' Commission on the IT Workforce, and in 2002-2005 on New Jersey's Corporate Business Tax Reform Study Commission. She received her PhD. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Appelbaum has 20 years of experience carrying out empirical research on workplace practices and labor-management cooperation. Her research focuses on work processes and work-life practices of organizations. Her recently published papers include "Organizations and the Intersection of Work and Family: A Comparative Perspective," in The Oxford Handbook on Work and Organizations; "Contesting Time: International Comparisons of Employee Control Over Working Time," in Industrial and Labor Relations Review; and "Balancing Work and Family: The Role of High Commitment Workplaces and Industrial Relations," in Industrial Relations. Her CWW report "Achieving a Workable Balance" examines NJ employers' experiences with employee leaves and turnover. A major strand of her work focuses on modern management and work organization practices. Dr. Appelbaum has studied and written extensively about employee participation, and is co-author of Job Saving Strategies: Worker Buyouts and QWL (1988), The New American Workplace (1994), and Manufacturing Advantage: Why High Performance Work Systems Pay Off (2000). Both of the last two books were chosen by Princeton University for its lists in 1995 and 2001 respectively of Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics. She is currently conducting research on work place practices in early care and education.
Dr. Appelbaum has published numerous articles on workforce, employment and labor market issues. She has also published widely on the labor market experiences of women.She co-edited Low Wage America: How Employers Are Reshaping Opportunity in the Workplace (2003). This book was also selected for Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics.