Previous Literature. A number of previous studies have investigated the relationship between household income and self-reported health status. Case et al. (2002) set the groundwork for this area of research by finding a significant positive relationship between family income and health of children younger than seventeen years of age in the United States. Applying similar setups as Case et al. (2002), many studies have since then investigated the existence of an income/health gradient in Canada (Xxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 0000), Xxxxxxx (Adda et al., 2009; Xxxxxx et al., 2007; Propper et al., 0000), Xxxxxxxxx (Xxxxxx et al., 2009), and Germany (Xxxxxxxx and Jürges, 2012). As a result of the findings in these studies, the existence of the income gradient in health became widely acknowledged.
Previous Literature. Despite the fact that several studies have previously examined the impact of minimum wages on employment and monetary outcomes, no consensus has been reached on how employment and earnings of low-wage workers are impacted by changes to wage floors. While the majority of work has looked at the US, previous work on the implementation of the NMW in the UK has no significant employment effects (Xxxxxxx, 2004; Xxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2004; Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2003) and no effects on hours worked (Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2003). Previous research has provided evidence that the NMW affected the overall wage distribution in the UK substantially and that it successfully decreased wage inequality in the decade after its introduction (Xxxxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2004; Dolton et al., 2012), which was one of the proclaimed policy goals of the government. Researchers have furthermore provided evidence for spillover effects of the policy change, meaning that workers who previously earned slightly above the new wage floor also received wage increases immediately following the reform, whereas wages of high earners remained unaffected (Butcher et al., 2012; Arulampalam et al., 2004). Similar evidence for the presence of spillover effects of minimum wage policies has been shown for the US (Card and Xxxxxxx, 1995). Only a few studies so far have examined the relationship between minimum wages and non-monetary job attributes. Previous work testing for the association of wage floors and employment-based health insurance has delivered mixed results (Simon and Xxxxxxxx, 2004; Marks, 2011; Bucila, 2013). To my knowledge, the only other non- monetary job aspect that has that has previously been examined is work-related training of low-wage workers. Arulampalam et al. (2004) finds that the NMW introduction significantly increased the amount of training obtained by low-wage workers. A literature regarding the relationship between minimum wage laws and health had been non-existent until recently. Two studies provide mixed evidence when examining the association between state variations of minimum wages and individual BMI in the US (Xxxxxxx and Xxxx, 2011; Cotti and Xxxxx, 2013). Furthermore, Xxxxx et al. (2012) indicate that increased minimum wages are associated with higher rates of fatal traffic accidents among drivers under the legal drinking age. Others have mentioned the possibility of a positive relationship between minimum wage and public health outcomes without providing empirical eviden...
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