Do minimum wage increases benefit worker health? Evidence from China

Jiwei Chen ()
Additional contact information
Jiwei Chen: Jinan University

Review of Economics of the Household, 2021, vol. 19, issue 2, No 10, 473-499

Abstract: Abstract This paper investigates whether minimum wage increases affect worker health in China. Using data on low-skilled workers from the 2014 and 2016 China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS), I find minimum wage increases significantly improve several measures of health, including self-reported health status and the presence of health conditions. When examining the potential channels underlying the relationship between minimum wages and health, I find the health behaviors (smoking, drinking, and regular exercise) of low-skilled workers do not change significantly after minimum wage increases. Minimum wage increases significantly improve the living standards and job satisfaction of low-skilled workers. Finally, I find minimum wage increases play a larger role in improving the health of rural hukou workers and workers aged 35 and above.

Keywords: Minimum wage; Health; Low-skilled workers; China; I1; I10; I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11150-020-09500-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:reveho:v:19:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s11150-020-09500-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/11150/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11150-020-09500-3

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economics of the Household is currently edited by Shoshana Grossbard

More articles in Review of Economics of the Household from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().