A Qualitative Analysis of SNAP and Minimum Wage Policies as Experienced by Workers with Lower Incomes

Early results of a natural experiment evaluating the effects of a local minimum wage policy on the diet-related health of low-wage workers, 2018–2020

“…In both cities, rates of food insecurity were consistently higher than expected; at all time points, more than half of the sample reported food insecurity, whereas nationally, food insecurity is approximately 35 % among those below the poverty line (40) . These results reinforce the social, financial and health vulnerabilities among low-wage workers that have been described in previous literature (41)(42)(43)(44) . The observed decline in food insecurity rates by more than 10 percentage points from 2019 to 2020 in both cities is likely related to the federal government economic relief measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Results from a qualitative study of a subset of the WAGE$ sample in 2019 (after the first phase of implementation) also suggest that incremental increases in the minimum wage may not be enough to meaningfully affect household finances or subsequent health outcomes. While many participants were guardedly optimistic that the policy could be somewhat helpful, they also expressed concerns about rising housing costs, made a distinction between $15 and hour wage and a living wage (42) .…”

Examining Changes in Food Security, Perceived Stress, and Dietary Intake in a Cohort of Low-Wage Workers Experiencing an Increase in Hourly Wage

“…However, the study team is monitoring potential area-level changes and will continue to track this through the end of the study period. A qualitative analysis based on a sample of Wages Study participants was recently published examining workers’ lived experiences regarding their employment, financial planning, and spending decisions to better understand the individual, family, and community factors that may be affecting the study’s results (Caspi, De Marco, Durfee, et al, 2021; Caspi, De Marco, Welle, et al, 2021). An additional limitation of this study is that the interplay of factors that affect social determinants of health is complex and can be difficult to measure quantitatively; further qualitative analyses may be instrumental in identifying the potential impacts of minimum wage increases on dietary intake, food insecurity, and stress to supplement quantitative research.…”

“…After analyzing quantitative data from the Wages Study, the research team observed interesting trends that warranted additional examination, such as better understanding of SNAP benefits in the context of a minimum wage policy. This prompted the research team to conduct a qualitative substudy, which provided the research team with rich interview data from Wages participants (Caspi, De Marco, Durfee, et al, 2021; Caspi, De Marco, Welle, et al, 2021). Thus, collecting and analyzing various sources of both quantitative and qualitative data can help researchers and practitioners better understand and contextualize their study results.…”

“…A final lesson learned from the Wages Study is that the ways policies interact with one another often make assessing the impact of a single policy on an outcome challenge. For example, the Wages research team has been examining the interaction between SNAP policies and minimum wage policies (Caspi, De Marco, Durfee, et al, 2021; Caspi, De Marco, Welle, et al, 2021). If a SNAP recipient experiences a wage increase and thereby increases their earnings, this may also cause SNAP benefits to decrease, blunting any impact of increased wages on diet.…”