IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v309y2022ics0277953622005469.html

Assessing associations between insecure income and US workers’ health: An IPUMS-MEPS analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Robert D.
  • Davis, John W.
  • Cuccaro, Paula M.
  • Gemeinhardt, Gretchen L.

Abstract

Gig economy compensation policy initiatives, such as California Prop 22, are increasing the number of US workers receiving piece rate pay (PRP) and other forms of insecure income. However, there is limited evidence about how this trend affects people's health. Using data from the 2008-19 IPUMS Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we examined associations between insecure compensation and US adults' self-reported overall health as well as psychological distress. We report significant associations with three types of insecure income — PRP, hourly, and daily pay — on overall health and psychological distress. These effects were robust to adjustment for suspected confounders, but point estimates suggested that the effect of each type of non-salary compensation differed by sex, level of education, income level, and health insurance coverage. These findings warrant policy makers' consideration as they balance the purported benefits of gig economy non-salary compensated work with implications for workers' health.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Robert D. & Davis, John W. & Cuccaro, Paula M. & Gemeinhardt, Gretchen L., 2022. "Assessing associations between insecure income and US workers’ health: An IPUMS-MEPS analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:309:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622005469
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115240
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622005469
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115240?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael A McClurkin & Leah Rae Yingling & Colby Ayers & Rebecca Cooper-McCann & Visakha Suresh & Ann Nothwehr & Debbie S Barrington & Tiffany M Powell-Wiley, 2015. "Health Insurance Status as a Barrier to Ideal Cardiovascular Health for U.S. Adults: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Anestis Touloumis & Alan Agresti & Maria Kateri, 2013. "GEE for Multinomial Responses Using a Local Odds Ratios Parameterization," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 69(3), pages 633-640, September.
    3. Kim, Myoung-Hee & Kim, Chang-yup & Park, Jin-Kyung & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2008. "Is precarious employment damaging to self-rated health? Results of propensity score matching methods, using longitudinal data in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 1982-1994, December.
    4. Keith Bender & Colin Green & John Heywood, 2012. "Piece rates and workplace injury: Does survey evidence support Adam Smith?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 569-590, January.
    5. Burgard, Sarah A. & Brand, Jennie E. & House, James S., 2009. "Perceived job insecurity and worker health in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 777-785, September.
    6. Youn Jung & Juhwan Oh & Soonim Huh & Ichiro Kawachi, 2013. "The Effects of Employment Conditions on Smoking Status and Smoking Intensity: The Analysis of Korean Labor & Income Panel 8th–10th Wave," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-8, February.
    7. Katharine G. Abraham & John C. Haltiwanger & Kristin Sandusky & James R. Spletzer, 2017. "Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Accounting for Innovation in the Twenty-First Century, pages 257-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 2019. "Understanding Trends in Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States," NBER Working Papers 25425, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Benjamin Artz & John S. Heywood, 2015. "Performance Pay and Workplace Injury: Panel Evidence," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1241-1260, December.
    10. László, Krisztina D. & Pikhart, Hynek & Kopp, Mária S. & Bobak, Martin & Pajak, Andrzej & Malyutina, Sofia & Salavecz, Gyöngyvér & Marmot, Michael, 2010. "Job insecurity and health: A study of 16 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 867-874, March.
    11. Nishikitani, Mariko & Tsurugano, Shinobu & Inoue, Mariko & Yano, Eiji, 2012. "Effect of unequal employment status on workers’ health: Results from a Japanese national survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 439-451.
    12. Cheng, Yawen & Chen, Chun-Wan & Chen, Chiou-Jong & Chiang, Tung-liang, 2005. "Job insecurity and its association with health among employees in the Taiwanese general population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 41-52, July.
    13. Edward P. Lazear, 2000. "Performance Pay and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1346-1361, December.
    14. Keith A. Bender & Ioannis Theodossiou, 2018. "The Unintended Consequences of Flexicurity: The Health Consequences of Flexible Employment," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(4), pages 777-799, December.
    15. William T. Gallo & Elizabeth H. Bradley & Michele Siegel & Stanislav V. Kasl, 2000. "Health Effects of Involuntary Job Loss Among Older Workers," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(3), pages 131-140.
    16. Gerald Friedman, 2014. "Workers without employers: shadow corporations and the rise of the gig economy," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 2(2), pages 171-188, April.
    17. Will Sutherland & Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi & Michael Dunn & Sarah Beth Nelson, 2020. "Work Precarity and Gig Literacies in Online Freelancing," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(3), pages 457-475, June.
    18. Erik Bengtsson & Svante Prado, 2020. "The rise of the middle class: the income gap between salaried employees and workers in Sweden, ca. 1830–1940," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(2), pages 91-111, May.
    19. Pickett, Kate E. & Wilkinson, Richard G., 2015. "Income inequality and health: A causal review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 316-326.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Italo A. Gutierrez & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2017. "Whistle While You Work: Job Insecurity and Older Workers’ Mental Health in the United States," CIRANO Working Papers 2017s-21, CIRANO.
    2. Kim, Il-Ho & Muntaner, Carles & Vahid Shahidi, Faraz & Vives, Alejandra & Vanroelen, Christophe & Benach, Joan, 2012. "Welfare states, flexible employment, and health: A critical review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 99-127.
    3. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2022. "Worker stress and performance pay: German survey evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 276-291.
    4. Elena Cottini & Paolo Ghinetti, 2018. "Employment insecurity and employees' health in Denmark," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 426-439, February.
    5. Allan, Julia L. & Andelic, Nicole & Bender, Keith A. & Powell, Daniel & Stoffel, Sandro & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2021. "Employment contracts and stress: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 360-373.
    6. Benjamin Artz & Colin P. Green & John S. Heywood, 2021. "Does performance pay increase alcohol and drug use?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 969-1002, July.
    7. Minelli, Liliana & Pigini, Claudia & Chiavarini, Manuela & Bartolucci, Francesco, 2014. "Employment status and perceived health condition: longitudinal data from Italy," MPRA Paper 55788, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Joshua Greenstein, 2020. "The Precariat Class Structure and Income Inequality among US Workers: 1980–2018," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 447-469, September.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13646 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Eve Caroli & Mathilde Godard, 2013. "Does Job Insecurity Deteriorate Health ? A Causal Approach for Europe," Working Papers 2013-13, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    11. Bryson, Alex & Clark, Andrew E. & Freeman, Richard B. & Green, Colin P., 2016. "Share capitalism and worker wellbeing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 151-158.
    12. Jason J Sandvik & Richard E Saouma & Nathan T Seegert & Christopher T Stanton, 2020. "Workplace Knowledge Flows," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(3), pages 1635-1680.
    13. Avram, Silvia, 2020. "Zero-hours contracts: flexibility or insecurity? Experimental evidence from a low income population," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-10, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    14. Woong Lee & Ran Im, 2023. "An Empirical Assessment of the Interactionist Model: The Relationship Between Household Income and Depression Among Retirees in Korea," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 729-751, April.
    15. Uwe Jirjahn & Jens Mohrenweiser, 2019. "Performance Pay and Applicant Screening," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 540-575, September.
    16. Krista Lynn Minnotte & Deniz Yucel, 2018. "Work–Family Conflict, Job Insecurity, and Health Outcomes Among US Workers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 517-540, September.
    17. Lena Låstad & Katharina Näswall & Erik Berntson & Aram Seddigh & Magnus Sverke, 2018. "The roles of shared perceptions of individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate for work- and health-related outcomes: A multilevel approach," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 39(3), pages 422-438, August.
    18. repec:iab:iabjlr:v:53:p:art.09 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Pierre-Carl Michaud & Italo A. Gutierrez, 2015. "Employer downsizing and older workers’ health," CIRANO Working Papers 2015s-34, CIRANO.
    20. Andrea Ciccarelli & Elena Fabrizi & Eleonora Romano & Pietro Zoppoli, 2022. "Health, Well-Being and Work History Patterns: Insight on Territorial Differences," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 629-647, June.
    21. Carlos-María Alcover & Sergio Salgado & Gabriela Nazar & Raúl Ramírez-Vielma & Carolina González-Suhr, 2022. "Job Insecurity, Financial Threat, and Mental Health in the COVID-19 Context: The Moderating Role of the Support Network," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, September.
    22. Goodman, Lucas & Lim, Katherine & Sacerdote, Bruce & Whitten, Andrew, 2025. "How do business owners respond to a tax cut? Examining the 199A deduction for pass-through firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:309:y:2022:i:c:s0277953622005469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.