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The impact of minimum wage increase on suicidal ideation in South Korea: a difference-in-differences analysis using nationally representative panel data

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Abstract

Background

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusions

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.

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Data availability

Data are available in a public, open access repository. This data can be accessed through the KOWEPS website: https://www.koweps.re.kr:442/eng/main.do.

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Funding

Funding for the project is provided through research start-up funds from Brock University, Faculty of Applied Health Science, to the project principal investigator, Antony Chum.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Chungah Kim and Yihong Bai contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Chungah Kim, Gabriel John Dusing & Antony Chum

  2. Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Yihong Bai

  3. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Antony Chum

  4. MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Antony Chum

  5. Canadian Institute for Health Information, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Andrew Nielsen

  6. Western University Ontario, London, Canada

    Yihong Bai

Authors
  1. Chungah Kim
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  5. Antony Chum
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Contributions

CK and YB contributed equally and shared the first author. Contributors CK and YB contributed to conception and design of the study. CK and YB managed and performed the statistical analysis. CK, YB, AN, GJD and AC wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. AC as the guarantor had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antony Chum.

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Ethics approval

The Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS) is publicly available data, and thus ethical approval is not required.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kim, C., Bai, Y., Dusing, G.J. et al. The impact of minimum wage increase on suicidal ideation in South Korea: a difference-in-differences analysis using nationally representative panel data. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-024-02646-w

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