研究显示，将最低工资提高1美元可能会防止数千人自杀

研究显示，将最低工资提高1美元可能会防止数千人自杀

A new study suggests that raising the minimum wage might lower the suicide rate — especially when unemployment is high — and that doing so might have saved tens of thousands of people from dying by suicide in the last quarter century.

一项新的研究表明，提高最低工资可能会降低自杀率——尤其是在失业率高企的情况下——这样做可能会在过去25年里挽救成千上万的人免于自杀。

The minimum federal minimum wage is $7.25. though many states have set it higher. Between 1990 and 2015. raising the minimum wage by $1 in each state might have saved more than 27.000 lives, according to a report published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. An increase of $2 in each state's minimum wage could have prevented more than 57.000 suicides.

联邦最低工资是7.25美元，尽管许多州已经将其定得更高。《流行病学与社区卫生杂志》(本周发表的一份报告显示，从1990年到2015年，每个州提高1美元的最低工资，可能已经挽救了2.7万多人的生命。每个州增加2美元的最低工资就可以避免超过57000人自杀。

"This is a way that you can, it seems, improve the well-being of people working at lower-wage jobs and their dependents," says John Kaufman, the lead author on the study and an epidemiology doctoral student at Emory University.

这项研究的主要作者、埃默里大学流行病学博士生约翰·考夫曼说：“似乎这是一种可以改善从事低薪工作的人及其家属的福祉的方法。”

Crucially, researchers found that raising the minimum wage appears to reduce the suicide rate more when it's harder to find a job. In bad times, the same $1 increase could save more people than it might during good times.

至关重要的是，研究人员发现，尤其是当人们更难找到工作的时候，提高最低工资似乎更能降低自杀率。在经济不景气时，同样的1美元的增长可以比经济景气时挽救更多的人。

"The higher unemployment is, the stronger that potential protective effect appears to be," says Kaufman.

“失业率越高，潜在的保护作用就越强，”考夫曼说。

The researchers found that 26.000 deaths could have been prevented following the 2009 peak in unemployment during the last recession had the minimum wage been $2 higher.

研究人员发现，如果最低工资提高2美元，那么在上一次经济衰退期间，2009年失业率达到峰值之后，本可以避免26.000人的死亡。

The report focused on less-educated adults because that group is more likely to earn the minimum wage. That group is also at a higher risk of depression and suicide, says Kaufman. Raising the minimum wage did not seem to affect whether college graduates would die by suicide.

这份报告主要针对受教育程度较低的成年人，因为他们更有可能获得最低工资。考夫曼说，这些人患抑郁症和自杀的风险也更高。提高最低工资似乎并不影响大学毕业生是否会自杀。

A number of other researchers are exploring the connections between the economy and our well-being. The study is the third in less than a year to show that raising the minimum wage may lower suicide rates, says Dr. Alexander Tsai, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved with the current research.

其他一些研究人员正在探索经济和我们的幸福之间的联系。哈佛大学马萨诸塞总医院的精神病学副教授亚历山大·蔡博士说，这项研究是不到一年内第三次表明提高最低工资可能降低自杀率的研究，他没有参与目前的研究。

A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April 2019 estimated that raising the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit by 10% each could prevent 1.230 people from dying by suicide each year.

国家经济研究局在2019年4月发布的一份工作报告估计，将最低工资和劳动所得税抵免分别提高10%，每年可防止1230人自杀。

What's new about the study led by Kaufman, says Tsai, is its discovery that the wage hikes lower the suicide rates more when unemployment is high.

蔡教授说，由考夫曼领导的这项研究的新发现是，当失业率高的时候，工资上涨更能降低自杀率。

Tsai also researches how economic opportunity affects health. He is a senior author on a study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, that found opioid overdoses increased by 85% in counties five years after an automotive plant closed.

蔡教授还研究了经济机会对健康的影响。他是发表在《美国医学会杂志内科学》上的一项研究的资深作者，该研究发现，在一家汽车厂关闭五年后，阿片类药物过量在一些县增加了85%。

"In a lot of areas around the country we're seeing that the American dream is really not panning out for a lot of people," he says.

他说:“在全国许多地区，我们看到很多人的美国梦实际上并不适合他们。”

To figure out whether the minimum wage was related to suicide rates, Kaufman and his coauthors looked at both numbers, by state, for every month between 1990 to 2015. They ran the numbers through a mathematical model which showed, on average, that for every $1 increase in the minimum wage, the suicide rate lowered by somewhere between 3.5% to 6%.

为了弄清楚最低工资是否与自杀率有关，考夫曼和他的合著者研究了1990年至2015年间各州的每月自杀率。他们通过一个数学模型来计算这些数字，这个数学模型显示，平均来说，最低工资每增加1美元，自杀率就会降低3.5%到6%。