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Title: Health and the Working Poor
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Zagorsky, Jay L. |
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Health and the Working Poor Eastern Economic Journal 25,2 (Spring 1999): 169-189. Also: http://www.jstor.org/pss/40325919 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Journals Keyword(s): Addiction; Disability; Disabled Workers; Employment; Health Factors; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Poverty; Welfare Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Recent welfare reforms that emphasize shifting people on public assistance into employment, no matter what they earn, has given new public policy importance to understanding the working poor. Central to these reforms are time limits that cap the number of years individuals can recieve benefits. Time limits implicitly assume that working provides enough income to lift one out of poverty and that the poor have no long-term health problems and other personal disabilities that can prevent them from escaping poverty and that working does not always boost individuals out of poverty. This research examines the working poor who are limited by health, drug and alcohol addiction or serious personal disabilities such as blindness. Approximately one-third of working-poor baby boomers suffers from at least one of these problems. This includes over half a million young baby boomers and approximately one percent of the U.S. population. Besides comprising a large proportion of the working poor, those with health and other limitations are important to examine because they have twice the chance of becoming working poor, spend more years in poverty, and have lower incomes after leaving poverty. In addition, almost half of the working poor who suffer from health or other serious limitations remain in poverty for five or more years. Thus, in order to reduce working poverty, policymakers must consider the needs and limitations of those who have significant health problems and other personal disabilities. |
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Bibliography Citation
Zagorsky, Jay L. "Health and the Working Poor." Eastern Economic Journal 25,2 (Spring 1999): 169-189.
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