The Role of Work in Shaping the Socioeconomic Status and Health Gradient

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5: Well-being and Work

Abstract

Socioeconomic status has been well established as a “fundamental cause” of social health disparities in recent decades, with a growing body of evidence demonstrating not only large health differences between the highest and lowest socioeconomic positions, but also revealing a step-wise relationship between incrementally higher socioeconomic status and superior health outcomes (Evans, Wolfe, and Adler 2012; Link and Phelan 1995). Since the publication of these findings, numerous studies have sought to understand the mechanisms linking socioeconomic status and health, examining various formulations of socioeconomic status (including primarily occupation-, education-, and income-based models) as well as a variety of physical and mental health outcomes. However, despite the fact that these findings were derived from workplace data, relatively few studies of the SES-health gradient have centered workplaces as a primary site where socioeconomic disparities in health are produced (Evans et al. 2012). The present study seeks to ‘bring work back in' to the study of the SES-health gradient in the United States. To what extent, then, might the employment conditions (e.g. job security, compensation, health insurance benefits, etc.) and working conditions (e.g. job demands, social support, autonomy, etc.) serve as central mechanisms mediating the SES-health gradient?

This study draws upon 2 waves of panel data from the American Working Conditions Survey (AWCS) collected in 2015 and 2018, and deploys a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal analytic techniques to assess the degree to which adverse work exposures can explain the SES-health gradient among a sample of U.S. workers. Results indicate a powerful role for work factors, and a wide range of relevant working and employment conditions.

Author

• Ian Harwood, The Ohio State University