Primary Submission Category: Socioeconomic status
Degrees of Decline: Race and Gender Disparities in the Precarious Employment Trajectories and Mid-Life Health of College-Educated Workers in the United States
Authors: Anita Minh Sarah Andrea Jessie Seiler Shanise Owens Kieran Blaikie Anjum Hajat
Presenting Author: Anita Minh*
Background: Higher education has had limited success with mitigating labour market discrimination and health disparities by race and gender. Higher education has typically buffered against exposure to precarious employment (PE), but this protection has weakened with widespread growth of PE. This study examines how race and gender shape exposure to PE in the early working trajectories of college-educated workers in the United States, and how these trajectories are associated with health in mid-life.
Methods: We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (Years: 1979-2018; n=2,751). With multichannel sequence analysis, we identified 20-year trajectories of PE across indicators of material rewards, working time arrangement, employment instability, workers’ rights and protections, and collective organization. We examined the association with depressive symptoms, and self-rated physical health at age 40, 50, and 60, controlling for age, baseline disability status, and family composition. Analyses were stratified by race and gender.
Results: Trajectories differed by race and gender. Women were more likely to have trajectories characterized by part-time work, family care, and labour force disconnection than men. Black and Hispanic men and women were more likely to have trajectories with greater employment instability and fewer material rewards than white men and women. Black and Hispanic women were less likely to have trajectories characterize by self-employment than white women. Trajectories with greater PE (e.g., low pay, employment instability, workers’ rights) were related to worse health and depressive symptoms at age 40, 50, and 60.
Conclusions: Education offers limited protections against exposure to PE for racialized populations, particularly for racialized women. To effective address race- and gender- disparities in health, policies and programs promoting educational attainment should be supplemented with interventions that improve employment quality.
Methods: Data came from college-educated respondents of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (Years: 1979-2018; n=2,751). Using multichannel sequence analysis, we identified 20-year trajectories of PE across indicators representing five domains from the date of respondents’ college graduation (material rewards, working time arrangement, employment instability, workers’ rights and protections, and collective organization). We examined the association with depressive symptoms, and self-rated physical health at age 40, 50, and 60, controlling for age, baseline disability status, and family composition. Analyses were stratified by race and gender.
Results: Unique trajectories were identified for race and gender subgroups. Trajectories characterized by part-time work, family care, and labour force disconnection were more frequent among women than men. Compared with white men and women, Black and Hispanic men and women were more likely to have trajectories with greater employment instability and fewer material rewards. Compared with white women, Black and Hispanic women were less likely to have trajectories characterize by self-employment. Trajectories characterized by worse employment across multiple dimensions of PE over time (e.g., low pay, employment instability, workers’ rights) were related to worse health and depressive symptoms at age 40, 50, and 60.
Conclusions: Education has unequal returns, having limited protections against long-term exposure to PE, particularly in the early working lives of women and racialized populations. Interventions to directly improve employment quality should supplement education-focused interventions to address race- and gender-based disparities in health.