Paying higher wages to adolescents who earn the minimum wage could reduce the number of babies born to teenage mothers. In fact, raising the state minimum wages by $1 would reduce adolescent births across the U.S. by about 5,000 annually, according to a recent study by an Indiana University researcher. Such a modest boost in the minimum wage would decrease the country’s teenage birthrate by 2 percent, according to the study authored by Lindsey Rose Bullinger, a doctoral student at the university’s school of public and environmental affairs.
Furthermore, raising state minimum wages by more than $1 could further decrease the number of births to adolescent mothers, Bullinger says. The study, “The Effect of Minimum Wage on Adolescent Fertility: A Nationwide Analysis,” was published in the March edition of the American Journal of Public Health. The results suggest that bolstering the minimum wage can make teenagers feel more hopeful about their futures and provides them motivation to make better choices about their health, Bullinger says.
“For all teenagers (including boys), that involves taking steps to avoid getting pregnant,” she says. “You can throw all the sex education you want at teenagers, but if they don’t think their financial situation is going to get better, that could be a big driver as to why some adolescents have children as teens. They’re less concerned about preventing teen pregnancy, whereas adolescents who feel like their financial situation will improve practice the right preventive behaviors. It’s not that teenagers who don’t feel like their economic picture will improve necessarily want to get pregnant, it’s that they’re a little less careful, more laissez faire about preventing pregnancy.”
[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health.]
Congress last increased the federal minimum wage in 2009, from $6.55 an hour to $7.25, which remains the current rate. To conduct her research, Bullinger compared the teen birthrates of states that have increased their minimum wage to those that have not, covering the period from the fourth quarter of 2003 through 2014; she did the same for the District of Columbia. Currently, 29 states and the District have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In terms of reducing teen births, raises in the minimum wage had the greatest effect on non-Hispanic white and Hispanic teenagers, who saw a decrease of 2 and 3 percent, respectively. The reduction in pregnancies was not as pronounced with black adolescent girls, perhaps because teens in that group have a lower rate of employment and are less likely to experience the effects of a wage bump, the study says.
The recent study’s findings are further evidence that improving the pay of minimum-wage workers is good for their health, says one anti-poverty researcher. “A growing body of research shows that economic well-being is a critical determinant of health outcomes, especially for low-income families,” says Rachel West, associate director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress, a progressive research and policy organization. “For that reason, policies that raise incomes and boost economic security — such as higher minimum wages — not only help working families make ends meet on their wages, but also lead to positive health effects such as improved infant health, stronger brain development in children and reduced unmet medical needs.” For example, a dollar increase in the federal minimum wage was associated with a 1 to 2 percent decrease in low birth weight births and a 4 percent drop in post-neonatal mortality, according to a study published in 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health.
[See: 10 Weird Mind and Body Changes That Are Totally Normal During Pregnancy.]
Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger agrees that raising the minimum wage leads to better health outcomes. The findings of Bullinger’s study “fit with what we’ve been saying for a long time — income and wealth make a big difference in health outcomes,” Ehlinger says. In June, the Minneapolis City Council voted to boost that city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2024. Elected officials in Seattle, San Francisco and the District of Columbia have also passed legislation raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and dozens of other cities have voted for more modest increases, West says. Ehlinger is supportive of these wage increases. “Research has shown that a good income prolongs life and helps protect people from a host of health problems,” he says. Those issues include premature death, AIDS, obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease, he says. Chronic diseases like these and others account for 70 percent of all deaths among Americans annually and for 75 percent of the nation’s spending on health services, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both the teenage birthrate and pregnancy rates have been declining in the U.S. since they surged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The country’s highest recorded teenage birthrate was 96.3 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 1957, according to the National Vital Statistics Report, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The teenage birthrate declined dramatically in subsequent years, but from 1986 to 1991, it rose 23 percent, reaching a rate of 62.1 births per 1,000 teenagers in 1991. The teenage birthrate has declined dramatically in ensuing years, decreasing to 20.3 births per 1,000 girls and women in the age group in 2016, according to preliminary government statistics. Since adolescent parents tend to have fewer economic resources to help raise their children and protect their health than older parents, many policymakers and health advocates generally view lowering the teenage birthrate as much as possible as a desirable goal, West says.
The decline in teen births between 2007 and 2012 is attributable to improvements in the use of contraceptives, according to a study published in 2016 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. “Our analysis indicates that improvement in contraceptive use accounted for all the decline in the PRI [Pregnancy Risk Index] from 2007 to 2012,” the study states. Researchers found an increase in contraceptive use by teenage girls of “highly effective methods [of contraception], particularly the pill.” “The available evidence indicates that improved contraceptive use continues to be a primary driver in these declines,” says Megan Donovan, senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health rights in the U.S. “The majority of adolescent pregnancies are unintended. These declines are to be celebrated in that we’re doing a better job of helping young people avoid unintended pregnancy.” She urged policymakers to protect programs that provide access to contraception and related services.
[See: What Only Your Partner Knows About Your Health.]
The study suggesting raising the minimum wage could reduce the teenage birthrate is “further evidence that teen births are affected by what’s happening in the labor market,” says Susan Williams McElroy, associate professor of economics and education policy at the University of Texas at Dallas. Researchers in a study published in 2015 in the Journal of Health Economics wrote that increased educational and employment opportunities for women and improvements in contraceptive technology could account for the decline in the teenage birthrate since 1991. McElroy, who teaches about poverty and inequality and conducts research on teen pregnancy, says further study of the issue is needed. “In the U.S. today, there are critical connections between economics, income and health. The three are so intertwined that unraveling the links [between them] and figuring out what determines what presents an ongoing challenge for researchers.”
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How Boosting the Minimum Wage Could Lower the Teen Birthrate originally appeared on usnews.com
