Why the Public Health Community Should Support Minimum Wage Campaigns

By Lili Farhang, Human Impact Partners

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25 per hour. As discussed in New York Times coverage of the address, 21 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage higher than the federal rate. Across the nation, from Minnesota and Massachusetts to Seattle and Washington, D.C., efforts are underway to increase the minimum wage either through the legislative process or the ballot box.

This should be welcome news for public health practitioners. Income is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of health and disease. Even modest increases in the minimum wage can lead to benefits for adults and kids – by decreasing the risk of premature deaths in adults, by decreasing the risk of early childbirth, and by increasing high school graduation rates among the children of workers earning higher wages.

But where is the public health establishment on this issue? Few state or local public health departments or national health organizations are engaged in organizing campaigns to adopt a higher minimum wage. This must be remedied, particularly given our collective interest in acting on the social determinants of health, reducing health inequities, and affecting population-level health change. 

Opportunities for the public health community to engage in minimum wage campaigns are many. Public health departments can generate data and evidence to demonstrate how income affects health, provide comment letters and public testimony, and write op-eds and other materials to raise awareness. By lending their support, practitioners also can establish relationships and build credibility with social movement organizations and identify new roles for themselves in advancing social policy. But above all, we will show that we view ourselves as part of the larger movement for social justice. 

There are only a few examples of public health departments that have done or are doing this. The first HIA in the U.S. was conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and examined the health effects of a proposed living wage ordinance in the city. Today, HIP is working with social justice advocates – for example, in Minnesota – to encourage public health departments to weigh in on state proposals to raise the minimum wage. 

The occupational safety and health community led the organizing in the 19th and 20th centuries to adopt safer workplace standards. Let's continue the tradition of these public health champions by providing our skills, relationships, power, and passion to the many minimum wage campaigns being waged across the country – and thereby improve the health and well-being of those who need it the most. 

Image by H Dragon via Flickr