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GILS Research

Research Programme

Open-access labour market research for Georgia — policy briefs, working papers, annual reports, and index reports. All free. No registration. No editorial influence from any funder.

Policy BriefsWorking PapersAnnual ReportsIndex ReportsOpen Access
Research Programme

Open-Access Labour Research for Georgia

GILS publishes policy briefs, working papers, data reports, and index reports on Georgian and South Caucasus labour markets. All publications are open-access, free to download, and available without registration. GILS does not publish research produced to the order of any government, employer body, trade union, or political party.

Open
All publications — free, no registration
4
Publication types
ILO
All frameworks ILO-grounded
EN / KA
English + Georgian target
Publication Types

What GILS Publishes

Policy Briefs

Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations

6–12 page briefs addressing specific policy questions — minimum wage methodology, collective bargaining reform, gender pay gap policy options, migrant worker protection. Each brief states the policy problem, reviews the evidence, and presents 3–5 concrete recommendations. Peer-reviewed by the Research Fellows Network before publication.

Working Papers

Original Empirical Research

20–40 page papers presenting original data analysis on Georgian labour market topics. Methodology documented in full. Datasets available on request for peer replication. Working papers are GILS’s primary contribution to the academic literature on Georgian labour economics.

Annual Reports

Labour Market Observatory Review

The annual Labour Market Observatory review provides a comprehensive update across all GILS data tools and indices — tracking change in wages, employment, informality, and decent work indicators year-on-year. The definitive annual reference on Georgian labour market conditions.

Index Reports

Decent Work & Rights Indices

Annual reports accompanying the Decent Work Index and Labour Rights Index — documenting methodology, data sources, year-on-year changes, and implications for Georgian labour policy. Produced in English with Georgian executive summaries.

Recent Publications

2023–2024 Research Outputs

TitleAuthor(s)YearType
Applying the Anker Living Wage Methodology to Georgian Cities: Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, and Rural GeorgiaLasha Beridze, GILS2024Working Paper
Gender Pay Gap in Georgia: Structural Causes and Policy OptionsMariam Maisuradze, GILS / UN Women Georgia2024Policy Brief
Minimum Wage Reform in Georgia: Options, Thresholds, and ImplementationGiorgi Tsiklauri, GILS2024Policy Brief
Georgia Labour Market Observatory — Annual Review 2024GILS Research Team2024Annual Report
Decent Work Index Georgia 2024GILS Research Team2024Index Report
Labour Rights Index Georgia 2024GILS Research Team2024Index Report
Unpaid Care Work and Women’s Labour Market Participation in GeorgiaMariam Maisuradze, GILS2023Policy Brief
Georgian Labour Migration: Destination Patterns, Remittances, and ReturnTamar Abashidze, GILS / IOM Georgia2023Working Paper
Informal Economy in Georgia: Scale, Sectors, and Policy OptionsNino Kvitsiani, GILS2023Policy Brief
Occupational Health and Safety in Georgian Healthcare: A Sector AssessmentGILS / PHIG Research Team2023Working Paper
Research Agenda 2025–2026

What We Are Working On

Priority 1

Minimum Wage Reform Impact Modelling

Quantitative modelling of employment and poverty impacts of alternative minimum wage scenarios for Georgia — including dynamic effects on informality and wage compression. To be published Q2 2025.

Priority 2

Healthcare Worker Labour Conditions Survey

First systematic survey of Georgian healthcare workers on wages, working conditions, overtime, occupational safety, and professional classification. Joint project with PHIG and GMJ. In fieldwork.

Priority 3

EU Labour Directive Transposition Assessment

Systematic comparison of Georgian labour law against each relevant EU directive in the accession acquis — identifying gaps, timelines, and implementation requirements. Target: Q3 2025.

Priority 4

South Caucasus Comparative Labour Study

Expanded South Caucasus Scorecard — including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia — with primary data collection and comparative decent work assessment. ILO partnership in discussion.

Priority 5

Platform and Gig Economy in Georgia

First assessment of gig economy scale, worker conditions, and regulatory gaps in Georgia — covering food delivery, ride-hailing, and freelance digital work. Emerging area with no existing Georgian research.

Priority 6

Professional Classification Reform

Assessment of Georgia’s medical and technical professional classification gaps — the barrier to structured wage setting in the healthcare sector that PHIG has documented since 2011.

Data Sources

Where Our Data Comes From

GILS sources all data to named primary sources. We do not publish unsourced or estimated figures without methodological disclosure. Primary data sources used across GILS research:

SourceTypeKey Data Used
Geostat (National Statistics Office of Georgia)National statisticsLabour Force Survey (quarterly), wage statistics, employment by sector, regional employment data
ILOSTATInternational statisticsComparative labour market data, decent work indicators, international wage comparisons
ILO databasesConvention and complianceConvention ratification status, CEACR reports, social dialogue metrics
World BankDevelopment dataGeorgia household surveys, poverty data, productivity indicators
Solidarity NetworkCivil society monitoringAnnual Workers Rights Violations Report — case-level violation data
GTUCTrade union dataCollective agreement coverage, membership data
GMJ / PHIGInstitutional researchHealthcare worker conditions, accreditation programme findings
Collaborate

Research Collaboration & Data Requests

GILS welcomes collaboration with academic institutions, international organisations, and civil society researchers working on Georgian and South Caucasus labour markets. We share datasets on request for peer replication of published findings.

For research collaboration, dataset requests, or peer review of work in progress, contact: info@accreditation.ge

Meet the researchers

The fellows and practitioners behind GILS’s research outputs.

Research Fellows Network Labour Market Observatory Decent Work Index