Chinese minimum wages and health

Abstract

Variation in the timing of changes in the minimum wage across provinces in China is exploited using individual/household longitudinal survey data from 2010 to 2018 to examine potential health effects on working age individuals in households that are likely affected by minimum wages. Minimum wage increases are estimated to improve self-reported health particularly by reducing the incidence of self-reported overall poor health. There is also reasonably strong evidence that they reduce unhappiness and lower dissatisfaction with less robust evidence that they improve mental health and lower recent discomfort. Importantly, there is a type of “dose-response” effect: the estimates indicate no health effects of minimum wage increases on those in households likely not affected financially by the minimum wage with health effects increasing the more likely the household is financially affected. The results are driven by the findings for males.