Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Colleagues and I completed a literature review in May, 2018 of 33 studies (1). As predicted, studies on minimum wages and health have rapidly expanded. As of February 6, 2020, at least ten new studies have been completed; by June this number should grow (partial list of new studies 2- 11). In addition, this Update will include 8 studies on fertility and health insurance that the 2018 review excluded because they were not direct measures of health. The Update will also include the initial 33 studies. I will again search four scientific websites for studies within the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. I will report all studies found but will devote most of the Results and Discussion paper sections to high quality studies, i.e. studies that clearly define workers within “likely affected” ( e.g. high school) and “not likely affected” ( college) groups. There were 15 of these in the 2018 review. There will again be substantial variety (20+) of outcomes. To help understand findings, I will group by outcome categories and demographics. Five outcome categories including all demographic groups will be: overall physical health (e.g. self-reported health, mortality), mental health (e.g. self-reported anxiety), behavior (e.g smoking), infants (birth weight, fertility), and insurance. Demographic categories including all outcomes will be women, men, youth, African Americans, white, Hispanic, continuously employed, and unemployed. Effect sizes and statistical significance across studies will be compared and assessed. Meta-analysis will be conducted if enough studies within a category (e.g. smoking) are available.