IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0223579.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

States with higher minimum wages have lower STI rates among women: Results of an ecological study of 66 US metropolitan areas, 2003-2015

Author

Listed:
  • Umedjon Ibragimov
  • Stephanie Beane
  • Samuel R Friedman
  • Kelli Komro
  • Adaora A Adimora
  • Jessie K Edwards
  • Leslie D Williams
  • Barbara Tempalski
  • Melvin D Livingston
  • Ronald D Stall
  • Gina M Wingood
  • Hannah L F Cooper

Abstract

Prior research has found that places and people that are more economically disadvantaged have higher rates and risks, respectively, of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Economic disadvantages at the level of places and people, however, are themselves influenced by economic policies. To enhance the policy relevance of STI research, we explore, for the first time, the relationship between state-level minimum wage policies and STI rates among women in a cohort of 66 large metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US spanning 2003–2015. Our annual state-level minimum wage measure was adjusted for inflation and cost of living. STI outcomes (rates of primary and secondary syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia per 100,000 women) were obtained from the CDC. We used multivariable hierarchical linear models to test the hypothesis that higher minimum wages would be associated with lower STI rates. We preliminarily explored possible socioeconomic mediators of the minimum wage/STI relationship (e.g., MSA-level rates of poverty, employment, and incarceration). We found that a $1 increase in the price-adjusted minimum wage over time was associated with a 19.7% decrease in syphilis rates among women and with an 8.5% drop in gonorrhea rates among women. The association between minimum wage and chlamydia rates did not meet our cutpoint for substantive significance. Preliminary mediation analyses suggest that MSA-level employment among women may mediate the relationship between minimum wage and gonorrhea. Consistent with an emerging body of research on minimum wage and health, our findings suggest that increasing the minimum wage may have a protective effect on STI rates among women. If other studies support this finding, public health strategies to reduce STIs among women should include advocating for a higher minimum wage.

Suggested Citation

  • Umedjon Ibragimov & Stephanie Beane & Samuel R Friedman & Kelli Komro & Adaora A Adimora & Jessie K Edwards & Leslie D Williams & Barbara Tempalski & Melvin D Livingston & Ronald D Stall & Gina M Wing, 2019. "States with higher minimum wages have lower STI rates among women: Results of an ecological study of 66 US metropolitan areas, 2003-2015," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0223579
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223579
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223579
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223579&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0223579?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Otto Lenhart, 2017. "The impact of minimum wages on population health: evidence from 24 OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(8), pages 1031-1039, November.
    2. Ford, J.L. & Browning, C.R., 2011. "Neighborhood social disorganization and the acquisition of trichomoniasis among young adults inthe United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(9), pages 1696-1703.
    3. Tsao, T.-Y. & Konty, K.J. & Van Wye, G. & Barbot, O. & Hadler, J.L. & Linos, N. & Bassett, M.T., 2016. "Estimating potential reductions in premature mortality in New York City from raising the minimum wage to $15," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(6), pages 1036-1041.
    4. Congressional Budget Office, 2014. "The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income," Reports 44995, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Congressional Budget Office, 2014. "The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income," Reports 44995, Congressional Budget Office.
    6. Rupasingha, Anil & Goetz, Stephan J., 2007. "Social and political forces as determinants of poverty: A spatial analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 650-671, August.
    7. Brent Kreider & John V. Pepper & Craig Gundersen & Dean Jolliffe, 2012. "Identifying the Effects of SNAP (Food Stamps) on Child Health Outcomes When Participation Is Endogenous and Misreported," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(499), pages 958-975, September.
    8. Congressional Budget Office, 2014. "The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income," Reports 44995, Congressional Budget Office.
    9. Max-Louis G Buot & Jeffrey P Docena & Brenda K Ratemo & Matthew J Bittner & Jacob T Burlew & Aziz R Nuritdinov & Jennifer R Robbins, 2014. "Beyond Race and Place: Distal Sociological Determinants of HIV Disparities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, April.
    10. Friedman, S.R. & Perils, T. & Des Jarlais, D.C., 2001. "Laws prohibiting over-the-counter syringe sales to injection drug users: Relations to population density, HIV prevalence, and HIV incidence," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(5), pages 791-793.
    11. Congressional Budget Office, 2014. "The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family Income," Reports 44995, Congressional Budget Office.
    12. Stephanie O. Crofton & William L. Anderson & Emily C. Rawe, 2009. "Do Higher Real Minimum Wages Lead to More High School Dropouts? Evidence from Maryland Across Races, 1993–2004," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 445-464, April.
    13. Wang, Wuyi & Phillips, Peter C.B. & Su, Liangjun, 2019. "The heterogeneous effects of the minimum wage on employment across states," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 179-185.
    14. Komro, K.A. & Livingston, M.D. & Markowitz, S. & Wagenaar, A.C., 2016. "The effect of an increased minimum wage on infant mortality and birth weight," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(8), pages 1514-1516.
    15. Biello, K.B. & Kershaw, T. & Nelson, R. & Hogben, M. & Ickovics, J. & Niccolai, L., 2012. "Racial residential segregation and rates of gonorrhea in the United States, 2003-2007," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(7), pages 1370-1377.
    16. Thomas, James C. & Thomas, Karen K., 1999. "Things ain't what they ought to be: social forces underlying racial disparities in rates of sexually transmitted diseases in a rural North Carolina county," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 1075-1084, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leigh, J. Paul, 2021. "Treatment design, health outcomes, and demographic categories in the literature on minimum wages and health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George L. Wehby & Dhaval M. Dave & Robert Kaestner, 2020. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Infant Health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 411-443, March.
    2. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    3. Nazila Alinaghi & John Creedy & Norman Gemmell, 2020. "The Redistributive Effects of a Minimum Wage Increase in New Zealand: A Microsimulation Analysis," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 53(4), pages 517-538, December.
    4. Holzer, Harry J., 2019. "The US Labor Market in 2050: Supply, Demand and Policies to Improve Outcomes," IZA Policy Papers 148, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Daniel Reck & Peer Ebbesen Skov, 2020. "Do Lower Minimum Wages for Young Workers Raise Their Employment? Evidence from a Danish Discontinuity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(2), pages 339-354, May.
    6. Burkhauser, Richard V., 2014. "Why Minimum Wage Increases Are a Poor Way to Help the Working Poor," IZA Policy Papers 86, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Meer, Jonathan, 2018. "Recent Research on the Minimum Wage: Implications for Missouri," MPRA Paper 93926, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Medrano-Adán, Luis & Salas-Fumás, Vicente, 2023. "Do minimum wages deliver what they promise? Effects of minimum wage on employment, output, and income inequality from occupational choice theory," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 366-383.
    9. David H. Autor & Alan Manning & Christopher L. Smith, 2016. "The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to US Wage Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 58-99, January.
    10. International Monetary Fund, 2016. "Cross-Country Report on Minimum Wages: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2016/151, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Oren M. Levin-Waldman, 2015. "Why the Minimum Wage Orthodoxy Reigns Supreme," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 29-50, January.
    12. Richard G. Anderson & Areerat Kichkha, 2017. "Replication, Meta-analysis, and Research Synthesis in Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 56-59, May.
    13. Charlotte Alexander & Anna Haley-Lock, 2015. "Underwork, Work-Hour Insecurity, and A New Approach to Wage and Hour Regulation," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 695-716, October.
    14. Richard V. Burkhauser & Kevin Corinth, 2021. "The minimum wage versus the earned income tax credit for reducing poverty," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 153-153, September.
    15. Bosch, Gerhard & Weinkopf, Claudia, 2014. "Zur Einführung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns von 8,50 € in Deutschland," Arbeitspapiere 304, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    16. William E. Even & David A. Macpherson, 2019. "Where Does the Minimum Wage Bite Hardest in California?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 1-23, March.
    17. David Neumark, 2016. "Policy levers to increase jobs and increase income from work after the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-38, December.
    18. Andrew Hanson & Zackary Hawley, 2014. "The $10.10 Minimum Wage Proposal: An Evaluation across States," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 323-345, December.
    19. Michael Reich & Rachel West, 2015. "The Effects of Minimum Wages on Food Stamp Enrollment and Expenditures," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 668-694, October.
    20. de Linde Leonard, Megan & Stanley, T.D., 2015. "Married with children: What remains when observable biases are removed from the reported male marriage wage premium," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 72-80.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0223579. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.