Workers' Health on the Line - Incite at Columbia University

This project uses an experimental design to evaluate the impact of a new form of online organization—facilitated support groups—on the health of individuals working in low-wage, precarious retail jobs.

The Organization United for Respect (OUR), our organizational partner, has pioneered a model for such support groups. The proposed project will use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of facilitated online discussion groups on physical and emotional well-being, and health-related workplace engagement. Using a customized version of the mobile app WorkIt, developed as a resource for low-wage workers by OUR, the proposed research will test the relative effect of a facilitated discussion group compared to an online group that receives health-related information, and to an online group that receives no information and no facilitation. The proposed study will help to evaluate the utility of this form of online community for improving cultures of health, and health outcomes, among a vulnerable population.

Deliverables to date

Shepherd, Hana, Rebecca Roskill, Suresh Naidu, and Adam Reich.  2025. “Workplace  Networks and the Dynamics of Worker Organizing.” Sociological Science 12:537-571. 

The project team collaborated on the development of a new platform to facilitate the development of online communities among low-wage workers. The technology developed for the United for Retail app has evolved beyond its original purpose, and now serves as the core infrastructure for a storytelling platform that collects and amplifies the voices of people in low-wage jobs.

The project team also developed a curriculum that was incorporated into the digital platform, intended to build community and collective capacity among low-wage workers.