Workplace Stratification and Racial Health Disparities

Kurt Lavetti, Long Hong, Jonathan A. Holmes and Trevon Logan

No 33514, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: To what extent is a worker's relative rank within their workplace a determinant of health status, conditional on income? We provide the first US-based evidence on the relationship between relative workplace rank and health status for the near population of workers in one US state. Using a new linkage of commercial all-payer health insurance data to administrative earnings records for workers in Utah from 2013-2015, we quantify the impact of relative workplace rank on health status, the incidence of specific chronic diseases, and racial health disparities. We show that about 70% of SES-health gradient that is commonly interpreted as an income gradient actually operates through relative rank. For an average worker, moving from the 90th to the 10th percentile of within-firm rank holding fixed income, age, location, and health insurance characteristics is associated with a 16.5% increase in morbidity. The racial segregation of jobs in the US leads minority workers to be overrepresented in lower-ranked jobs within firms, which in turn exacerbates racial health disparities.

JEL-codes: I0 I14 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lab
Note: AG EH LS
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