Michael Schultz

Michael Schultz is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. Schultz is a quantitative sociologist and social demographer who studies economic mobility, social policy, and workers’ careers. To date, his research is published in American Sociological Review, the Russell Sage Foundation Journal for the Social Sciences, Social Science Research, and Equitable Growth’s working paper series.

Schultz uses a structural inequality approach that focuses on how institutions, like education systems, job ladders, and welfare state programs shape the mobility of workers’ and their households over the life course. Schultz specializes in telling stories with data to provide insight into how workers and households navigate opportunities and constraints to advance their careers and gain economic security.

Schultz is the PI on an NSF grant studying the job ladders into and through the STEM Skilled Technical Workforce and on a Strada Foundation grant investigating the occupational and wage outcomes of WA postsecondary school leavers in partnership with the WA Education Research & Data Center using the P20-W longitudinal education and workforce data. He conducts public impact research through collaborations with government and community organizations to bridge the gap between research and make research available and accessible to the public.