Citation

Ahern J. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

School of Public Health, Epidemiology & Biostatistics Division, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA jahern@berkeley.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/jech-2019-213647

PMID

31988238

Abstract

Kaufman and colleagues have considered the relationship between minimum wage and suicide mortality in the USA.1 Overall, they found that a dollar increase in the minimum wage was related to a meaningful 3.4% decrease in suicide mortality for those of lower educational attainment. Interestingly, this is the third paper in recent months to address the question of how minimum wage affects suicide. Across these papers, there is a remarkable overall consistency of findings, and important subissues are highlighted in each individual paper.

The first of these papers, by Gertner and colleagues, found a 1.9% reduction in suicide associated with a dollar increase in the minimum wage across the total population.2 However, this research was unable to delve into the subgroup effects that would have allowed for a difference in differences approach, or placebo tests, due to their data source. First, Dow and colleagues,3 and then Kaufman and colleagues1 built on this initial finding with analyses of data that facilitated examination of subgroups. Both of these papers considered the group with a high school education or …

Language: en

Keywords

health policy; suicide; unemployment