Association Between State Minimum Wage and Firearm Suicides in the USA, 2000-2020.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Injury Prevention : Journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 2026, v. 32, no. 3: Association Between State Minimum Wage and Firearm Suicides in the USA, 2000-2020.
• Journal Article:
  Injury Prevention : Journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
• Personal Author:
  Merrill-Francis, Molly ; Dunphy, Christopher ; Lennon, Natalie ; Chen, May S ; Grady, Catherine ; Miller, Gabrielle F ; Girod, Candace ; McCourt, Alexander Duncan
• Description:
  Firearm suicides constitute a major public health issue. Policies that enhance economic security and decrease community-level poverty may be effective strategies for reducing risk of firearm suicide. This study examined the association between state minimum wage and firearm suicide.
  
  State minimum wage, obtained from Temple's Law Atlas and augmented by legal research, was conceptualised using the modified Kaitz Index and a continuous variable centred on the federal minimum wage. State-level suicide counts were obtained from 2000 to 2020 multiple-cause-of-death mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System. Log-linear regressions were conducted to model the associations between state minimum wage and firearm suicides, stratifying by demographic groups. Analyses were conducted in 2023.
  
  A one percentage point increase in a state's modified Kaitz Index was associated with a 0.3% (95% CI -0.6% to -0.0%) decrease in firearm suicides within a state. A US$1.00 increase in a state's minimum wage above the federal minimum wage was associated with a 1.4% (95% CI -2.1% to -0.6%) decrease in firearm suicides. When stratified by quartile of firearm ownership, the modified Kaitz Index was associated with decreases in firearm suicides most consistently in the two lowest quartiles.
  
  Increasing a state's minimum wage may be a policy option to consider as part of a comprehensive approach to reducing firearm suicides. These findings expand the evidence base for how economic policies may be leveraged to reduce firearm suicides.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Firearms
  • Salaries and Fringe Benefits
  • Humans
  • Suicide
  • Poverty
  • Suicide Prevention
  • State Government
  • Wounds, Gunshot
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Male
  More +
• Source:
  Injury Prevention : Journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 2026, v. 32, no. 3
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2024-045266
• ISSN:
  1353-8047 ; 1475-5785
• Pubmed ID:
  39227146
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11873172
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  384-390 (16 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  32
• Issue:
  3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/262032/cdc_262032_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 228.96 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:666452a700829df5fd4cdc0f13865a7059e5434cd1e59f8477df4b73bd0c32b1dc1ba85acb635fd89cd374d69dc3db0524e693448a3266d823089d14204f33a9