Foundation active · Section 42 registration · Islamabad

The Democracy andGovernance Foundation

Islamabad · PakistanSection 42, Companies ActPublic launch · 2026
FA.04 · Focus Area

Workers & Industry

Pakistan's economy is carried by a workforce — formal and informal — whose voice is rarely heard in the policy debates that shape it. We research labour conditions, wage structures, workplace safety and the country's missing measurement of informal work.

What this focus area covers.

Each focus area is structured around four to six durable sub-themes — research questions that recur and need consistent, longitudinal evidence rather than one-off studies.

Sub-theme 1

Labour rights & protections

Implementation of labour laws across provinces, registration coverage, social-security access and the gap between statute and shop floor.

Sub-theme 2

Workplace health & safety

Industrial-accident documentation, sectoral risk profiles, and the regulatory architecture for workplace inspection — what exists, what doesn't, what works.

Sub-theme 3

Informal economy measurement

Methodological work on counting Pakistan's informal workforce — by sector, by gender, by geography. Including domestic, agricultural and platform work.

Sub-theme 4

Wages, gig and platform work

Wage-share trends, gender wage gaps, and the rapidly growing population of workers on digital platforms — who they are, what they earn, what protections they have.

From this focus area.

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DemTech for this terrain.

Each focus area is supported by one or more DemTech tools — for fieldwork, citizen engagement, monitoring or open-data publication.

See the dedicated DemTech tools for this area

Open the DemTech Commons hub to see which tools support Workers & Industry work, or apply for partner access if you're a civic-society organisation.

Want to work with us on Workers & Industry?

Commission a study, propose a partnership, contribute data, or support the focus area through a programmatic grant.