The Indiana University Division of Labor Studies was founded in 1946 as a system-wide unit of the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) when the Indiana University Post-War Planning Committee on Industrial Relations recommended that the university "broaden its offerings off-campus...with the view of meeting the demands for workers' education, foremanship training, and education of trade union officials." In 1946, Dr. Fabian Underhill accepted a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and as Coordinator of Industrial Relations Program for the Bureau of Adult Education and Public Service (which would later become the School of Continuing Studies.) The program began by offering single lectures, short courses, and one-week institutes on the Bloomington campus.

In 1955, Dr. D.W (Witt) Murphy was appointed Director of the newly established Bureau of Industrial and Labor Services in the Division of Adult Education and Public Service on the Bloomington campus. Under Witt Murphy's leadership over the next 26-plus years, Indiana University's labor education efforts grew from a one-person operation into a full-time, professionally staffed, statewide program. The program became the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) in 1964. In August 1972, Keith Knauss was hired to help establish the first full-time regional labor education operation off the Bloomington campus. In February 1973, The Indiana University South Bend office opened where Knauss continued to work as Program Coordinator and Professor. The program became the Division of Labor Studies (DLS) in 1976.

The Division of Labor Studies' mission was to provide university-level, non-credit and credit labor studies programming to meet the needs of workers and students. The goal of the Labor Studies program was to explore issues of class struggle and social inequality as it pertains to workers and the workplace. The program had a long history of working with local unions in Indiana to develop and provide educational courses through the Union Education Program (UEP). UEP open enrollment courses and conferences were available to workers in communities throughout Indiana; they were offered in local union halls, on the various campuses of Indiana University, and on the campuses of other educational institutions.

In 1976, the DLS added a Labor Studies concentration in the School of Continuing Studies degree and later, in 1985, established Certificate, Associate and Bachelor of Science Degrees in Labor Studies. During this time, the DLS was a system-wide unit of the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) and was led by a director who reported to the Dean of the School of Continuing Studies. While administration of the division was centralized, program coordination was decentralized. Sponsored research and specialized educational programs were coordinated through the Institute for the Study of Labor in Society and the Occupational Safety and Health Resource Center, based on the Bloomington campus.

Comprehensive advice and direction concerning the goals, programs and administration of the division was provided by the Statewide Advisory Committee on Labor Education and Research, which was appointed by the president of the university. The committee consisted of 39 labor and academic leaders throughout Indiana, including representatives from six Indiana University campuses, and representatives from Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.

In February 1982, Dr. Lee Balliet became Director of the state-wide DLS program. The SCS Dean Kathy Krendl chose to promote Peter Seybold to the position of Acting Director, and he was appointed as permanent DLS Director in 1994 for six IU campuses.

In 2000, the Division of Labor Studies became an independent division, and in July 2007, the Division of Labor Studies merged with the School of Social Work. The School of Social Work assumed all fiscal and administrative authority for the Labor Studies Program.