The Link Between Health and Economic Security for Working-Age Women

Good health often depends on having a good job and economic security. At the same time, staying healthy is often critical to keeping a job. For women, the tie between health and economic security is intensified by their responsibilities for caring for sick children or family members. In general, the survey reveals a strikingly negative relationship between health and income. The lower a woman's income, the more likely she is to have a disability or chronic disease and generally poor health. To examine the interaction among health, family responsibilities, and women's ability to earn a decent living, this issue brief groups working-age women (ages 18–64) into one of four roughly equal income quartiles. The profiles of health status, work, family responsibilities, health insurance, and access to care for women with low or modest incomes, compared with those for women with above-median incomes, highlight the complex ties that exist between health and income.