A new study led by a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that a $1 increase in state and federal minimum wages over the 2002–2020 period was associated with a small decrease in the percentage of employers offering health insurance.
The 0.92 percentage-point decrease in employers offering insurance was driven by small firms with fewer than 50 employees and a higher percentage of low-wage workers. The study also found that a $1 dollar increase in minimum wage was linked to a 1.83 percentage-point increase in the prevalence of plans with a deductible requirement, driven by both large and small companies.
The study is thought to be among the first that analyzes how employers' responses to changes in minimum wage law may differ by employer size or its distribution of employees' wages.
The findings were published in the Journal of Health Economics.
The study also found no evidence that minimum wage increases led to changes in overall rates of insurance coverage, which the researchers say was likely explained by employees enrolling in Medicaid. The study noted that the minimum wage effects were larger after the Affordable Care Act was implemented. Signed into law in 2010, ACA's regulation of the small-group, employer-sponsored insurance market began in 2014.
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