NEW Funding Opportunity: Research to Advance Racial & Indigenous Health Equity

Letters of Intent for New Research Support Awards are due July 16, 2025 at 3pm EDT. The deadline for the Rapid Response Research Awards has passed and no additional applications will be accepted. 

Health at a Living Wage: Evidence From Natural Experiments

Project Summary

The goal of this project is to assess the effects of living wage (LW) policies on the health and wellbeing of low-income adults. The project team is leveraging natural experiments in LW policy adoption across metro areas in two population-based, longitudinal studies: the Community Tracking Study and the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) Cohort Study. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of placing health as a front-and-center objective for social and economic policy.

Research Questions/Aims

  • What are the effects of LW policies on material and psychological wellbeing, allostatic load biomarkers, health status, and health behaviors?
  • To what extent have LW effects persisted over time since implementation?
  • To what extent have LW effects varied by policy characteristics, including criteria for coverage of workers, health insurance offering, and implementation quality?

Actionability

  • Inform municipal policy reforms (e.g., city-wide minimum wage) that are gaining significant traction across cities as a means to improve equity in living and working conditions for their populations.

Outcomes

Health & well-being: material and psychological well-being; allostatic load biomarkers; self-rated health status; BMI; and smoking, drinking, and dietary behavior

Other: Medical care access

Methodology

Difference-in-difference-in-differences design to generate quasi-experimental, intention-to-treat estimates of LW policy effects.


A balanced scale with money on one side and a family on the other
Grantee and Partner organizations

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Northwestern University
Drexel University
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Grant status
Completed
Project Director(s)
Mustafa Hussein, PhD
Start date
Award amount
$247,406
Duration
24 months

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