TY - JOUR
T1 - U.S. State Preemption Laws and Working-Age Mortality
AU - Wolf, Douglas A.
AU - Montez, Jennifer Karas
AU - Monnat, Shannon M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this article was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Policies for Action program through grant number 76103 and from the Center for Aging and Policy Studies, which receives center core funding from the National Institute on Aging (P30AG66583).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Journal of Preventive Medicine
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Introduction: The goal of this study was to estimate how state preemption laws that prohibit local authority to raise the minimum wage or mandate paid sick leave have contributed to working-age mortality from suicide, homicide, drug overdose, alcohol poisoning, and transport accidents. Methods: County-by-quarter death counts by cause and sex for 1999–2019 were regressed on minimum wage levels and hours of paid sick-leave requirements, controlling for time-varying covariates and place- and time-specific fixed effects. The model coefficients were then used to predict expected reductions in mortality if the preemption laws were repealed. Analyses were conducted during January 2022–April 2022. Results: Paid sick-leave requirements were associated with lower mortality. These associations were statistically significant for suicide and homicide deaths among men and for homicide and alcohol-related deaths among women. Mortality may decline by more than 5% in large central metropolitan counties currently constrained by preemption laws if they were able to mandate a 40-hour annual paid sick-leave requirement. Conclusions: State legislatures’ preemption of local authority to enact health-promoting legislation may be contributing to the worrisome trends in external causes of death.
AB - Introduction: The goal of this study was to estimate how state preemption laws that prohibit local authority to raise the minimum wage or mandate paid sick leave have contributed to working-age mortality from suicide, homicide, drug overdose, alcohol poisoning, and transport accidents. Methods: County-by-quarter death counts by cause and sex for 1999–2019 were regressed on minimum wage levels and hours of paid sick-leave requirements, controlling for time-varying covariates and place- and time-specific fixed effects. The model coefficients were then used to predict expected reductions in mortality if the preemption laws were repealed. Analyses were conducted during January 2022–April 2022. Results: Paid sick-leave requirements were associated with lower mortality. These associations were statistically significant for suicide and homicide deaths among men and for homicide and alcohol-related deaths among women. Mortality may decline by more than 5% in large central metropolitan counties currently constrained by preemption laws if they were able to mandate a 40-hour annual paid sick-leave requirement. Conclusions: State legislatures’ preemption of local authority to enact health-promoting legislation may be contributing to the worrisome trends in external causes of death.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.06.005
DO - 10.1016/j.amepre.2022.06.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 36272759
AN - SCOPUS:85140001953
SN - 0749-3797
VL - 63
SP - 681
EP - 688
JO - American Journal of Preventive Medicine
JF - American Journal of Preventive Medicine
IS - 5
ER -