Minimum wage increases improve women’s health, study finds

A new study found that increasing minimum wage may improve women’s health.

Researchers from the University of Maine also found that increasing the minimum wage may harms low-educated and low-income men’s health in the same demographic category as women.

The study analysed 2011-2019 data from the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, a large annual telephone survey in which participants rate their general health on a five-point scale and report the number of days in the past month when they experienced poor physical or mental health. 

Researchers compared those measures to changes in the minimum wage rates finding that a 10 per cent increase improved women’s general health and reduced their physical and mental health burdens. 

Lead author of the study Liam Sigaud said: “We’re excited to contribute to this important and fast-growing area of research. With so much interest in minimum wage policy at all levels of government, we hope our work can inform decision-making in a positive way.

“By using more recent data that better captures the current state of economy, our study is a strong complement to the existing literature on this topic.”

On the other hand, the results of the study for men were more complicated. While higher minimum wages increased men’s physical and mental health burdens, the effect on men’s general health was ambiguous.

“Although our study hints at possible pathways, there’s still a lot we don’t know about why higher minimum wages affect the health of men and women differently,” said Sigaud, “It’s probably a complicated mix of factors related to family roles, occupational choices and behaviours that differ across genders.

“We hope future work can elucidate these mechanisms. As the data and quantitative tools to explore these questions constantly improve, we’re going to have better and better insights.”

The minimum wage rates in the UK increased on the 1st of April 2022, going from £8.91 to £9.50 which represents a 6.6 per cent increase. 

According to census 2021, the gender pay gap in the UK has been declining slowly over time, falling by approximately a quarter among both full-time employees and all employees over the last decade.