Sustained Low Salary Triggers Early Death Risk, Study Finds
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VIVA – The high cost of living nowadays requires everyone to work harder every day to make money. However, a study find that sustained low salary can trigger employees to an early death risk.
A study was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on February 21, 2023. The results of the study revealed that middle-aged workers who have low incomes with unstable job pressure have a high risk of death.
This study by Katrina L. Kezios, Ph.D., from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues explored the relationship between low-salary income and sustained mortality.
The analysis included 4,002 participants from the United States (aged 50 years and older) who reported earning hourly wages at three or more points in time during their 12 years of employment.
The researchers found that those who had never earned low wages experienced 199 deaths per 10,000 person-years versus 208 deaths per 10,000 person-years for intermittent low salary and 275 deaths per 10,000 person-years for sustained low salary.
"If the relationship is causal, our findings suggest that social and economic policies that improve the financial situation of low-salary workers (such as minimum salary laws) could improve outcomes and reduce mortality," the researchers wrote.
Sustainably low-paid workers are most at risk of this problem. Their unbalanced conditions between work and exposure to workplace hazards, stress, and other health risks can affect mortality.