School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2024 Nov;59(11):1953-1961. doi: 10.1007/s00127-024-02646-w. Epub 2024 Mar 1.
South Korea had the highest suicide rates in the OECD and one of the largest (16.4%) increases in the minimum wage in 2018. Prior studies have provided evidence that increases in minimum wage reduce suicide rates in the population, but no study examined the effects of the policy change on individual-level suicidal behaviour.
Our study sample was built using the 2015-2019 waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Survey, a population-representative longitudinal survey. The sample consisted of 5146 participants, including those earning above minimum wage (control) and minimum wage earners (treatment) based on their 2018/19 earnings. The outcome of the study was suicidal ideation, which is an important precursor to other suicidal behaviours, and was captured using self-reported measures. We examined the impact of the 2018 minimum wage hike in Korea on suicidal ideation, using a difference-in-differences design.
The minimum wage increase was associated with a 1.6% points reduction (95% CI: -2.8% to -0.5%) in self-reported suicidal ideation. Stronger policy effects were shown among women and older age groups.
Our study demonstrates that public policies employing a population-based approach, such as increasing minimum wages, could serve as an effective intervention to mitigate suicidal ideation among low-income workers.
韩国是经合组织（OECD）中自杀率最高的国家，也是 2018 年最低工资涨幅最大的国家之一（涨幅 16.4%）。先前的研究已经提供了证据，表明最低工资的提高会降低整个人群的自杀率，但没有研究考察政策变化对个人自杀行为的影响。
我们的研究样本是使用韩国福利面板调查 2015-2019 年的波动构建的，这是一项具有代表性的纵向调查。该样本包括 5146 名参与者，他们根据 2018/19 年的收入，分为高于最低工资的（对照组）和最低工资的（处理组）。研究的结果是自杀意念，这是其他自杀行为的重要前兆，使用自我报告的措施来捕捉。我们使用双重差分设计来考察韩国 2018 年最低工资上涨对自杀意念的影响。
最低工资的提高与自我报告的自杀意念减少了 1.6 个百分点（95%CI：-2.8%至-0.5%）。该政策对女性和年龄较大的群体效果更强。
我们的研究表明，采用基于人口的公共政策，如提高最低工资，可以作为一种有效的干预措施，减轻低收入工人的自杀意念。
