Do wage increases help? Wage increases and material hardships among low-wage hospital workers

Jihee Woo; Jeffrey Shook; Sara Goodkind; Kess Ballentine; Rafael Engel; Soobin Kim; Helen Petracchi

doi:10.1080/10911359.2022.2036282

Do wage increases help? Wage increases and material hardships among low-wage hospital workers

Jihee Woo, Jeffrey Shook, Sara Goodkind, Kess Ballentine, Rafael Engel, Soobin Kim, Helen Petracchi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examines whether and how wage increases are associated with hardships experienced by low-wage workers and their strategies to manage these hardships. Data are drawn from a survey of 166 hospital service, clerical, and technical workers at a large hospital in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Following an initial wage increase, workers experienced fewer hardships and used fewer strategies to make ends meet, such as financial support from family and public benefits programs. Hardships decreased more for workers making above $15 an hour. These results suggest that raising the wages of low-wage workers can help reduce the hardships they experience and the need to use a variety of strategies to make ends meet.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	198-211
Number of pages	14
Journal	Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment
Volume	33
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2022.2036282
State	Published - 2023
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

Low-wage workers
material hardship
strategies to make ends meet

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1080/10911359.2022.2036282

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Do wage increases help? Wage increases and material hardships among low-wage hospital workers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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