The effects of minimum wages on the health of working teenagers

ABSTRACT

This article examines the effect of minimum wage increases on the self-reported health of teenage workers. We use a difference-in-differences estimation strategy and data from the Current Population Survey, and disaggregate the sample by race/ethnicity and gender to uncover the differential effects of changes in the minimum wage on health. We find that white women are more likely to report better health with a minimum wage increase while Hispanic men report worse health.

KEYWORDS:

• Minimum wage
• self-reported health
• teenagers
• race/ethnic differences

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I10
• I18
• J15
• J16

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Katim Woldemariam and Tamerlane Asher for helpful research assistance. We are grateful to Andrew Freidson, Joe Sabia and session participants at the Eastern Economic Association, the Population Association of American 2016 annual meetings, and the ASHE 2016 annual meetings as well as seminar participants at AHRQ and the University of Kansas for helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.