Higher minimum wages are linked to lower suicide rates

OF ALL THE tactics governments employ to raise living standards, few stir as much controversy as the minimum wage. Advocates claim that minimum wages help boost earnings in industries with too little competition, and prevent workers from being exploited. Critics maintain that, by setting an arbitrary floor on pay, minimum wages reduce overall employment, particularly among low-skilled workers. Now a group of epidemiologists at Emory University in Atlanta say the minimum wage has other benefits that have been overlooked.

A new paper in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health finds that as well as raising earnings, minimum wages may also improve workers’ mental health. Using data from all 50 American states and the District of Columbia from 1990 to 2015, the authors estimate that a $1 increase in the minimum wage is associated with a 3.5% decline in the suicide rate among adults aged 18 to 64 with a high-school education or less. This may sound small, but the numbers add up. The authors reckon that a $1 increase would have prevented 27,550 suicides in the 25 years covered by the study; a $2 increase would have prevented 57,000.