The movement to raise the minimum wage across our country has always been a practical one. There are tons of Americans working minimum wage jobs that do not provide nearly enough money to support them or their families. The newly elected Democratic-majority House has introduced a proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15, more than doubling the current $7.25. A new study out of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, published on Thursday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, points to a strong association between increases in the minimum wage and decreases in our country’s suicide rates.
There were approximately 432,000 deaths by suicide in the study period. A one-dollar increase in the real minimum wage was associated on average with a 1.9% decrease in the annual state suicide rate in adjusted analyses. This negative association was most consistent in years since 2011. An annual decrease of 1.9% in the suicide rate during the study period would have resulted in roughly 8,000 fewer deaths by suicide. Analyses by race and sex did not reveal substantial variation in the association between minimum wages and suicides.
The lead author of the study, Alex Gertner, a doctoral student in health policy and management at the Gillings School and doctor of medicine candidate at the UNC School of Medicine, explains that “most of health is determined by social conditions, rather than use of healthcare services. Policies that improve financial security may have a key role to play in reversing worsening trends in suicides in the U.S.”
As the movement to raise the minimum wage has gained steam, Republicans have worked to gut or hamper any proposed minimum wage increases. Their argument is that raising the minimum wage will frighten employers away from creating new jobs. These claims have, like most conservative economic theory, been supported by very little practical evidence in the field. However, investing in our country’s workers not only increases their ability to provide and participate in our consumer-driven economy; it also seems to also have mental health benefits as well. Pay a little bit more now to save more later.