A higher income surely helps make parents more capable of caring for their children, right? Not necessarily, according to researchers from the McGill University.

In a study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers showed that raising minimum wage in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) doesn't automatically lead to improved health for young children.

The first to examine how minimum wage laws affect child health, the study was carried out to determine if poverty-reduction policies are effective in improving child health. The researchers utilized a measurement called height-for-age z score (HAZ), which compares a child's height relative to the mean height of children in the same age and is considered a crucial indicator of nutrition in early childhood.

Muhammad Farhan Majid and colleages used HAZ scores from nearly 140,000 children up to 5 years of age born across a 14-year period and living in urban areas in 49 LMICs in Latin America, Asia and Africa. They also collected information regarding government-mandated minimum wages during the same time span.

Based on their findings, the researchers saw that lower-income countries posted lower HAZ scores when minimum wages in their nation increased, an outcome that is most evident in South Asia.

Why the negative health effect?

The researchers suggest that increasing minimum wage levels causes unemployment rates to rise in certain groups. With businesses likelier to lay off women of childbearing age to accommodate the wage increase, those who are pregnant may find themselves unable to access health services, which affects a child's development.

However, increasing wages is not all bad. The researchers also saw that certain groups did derive benefit from earning more, like those who are in skilled jobs.

"We are just scratching the surface of this important yet much ignored topic," said Majid, highlighting the importance of better understanding underlying mechanisms to see what works and what doesn't so that unintended adverse effects can be avoided.

For future research, Majid is looking at carrying out a similarly designed study in Indonesia. He will have access to more detailed data that can differentiate between health effects experienced by children whose parents work in the informal and formal economy.

Other researchers for the study include Arijit Nandi, John Frank, Sam Harper and Jose M. Mendoza Rodriguez.

Photo: David Amsler | Flickr