Obesity affects transition to work from welfare

Obesity contributes to various chronic medical problems, but new research on current and former welfare recipients indicates that it also affects women's employment success.

The study by researchers at U-M and Cornell University was presented earlier this month in Germany.

"Obesity represents a potential barrier to labor market success as women leave welfare for work because obese females tend to earn less than healthy-weight females," says John Cawley, lead author and assistant professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell, and a former Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the School of Public Health. Sheldon Danziger, a professor at the Ford School of Public Policy and co-director of the National Poverty Center, is the other author.

The study found overweight white women who were welfare recipients in early 1997 endured adverse labor market outcomes over the subsequent four years relative to their counterparts who weighed less. For white respondents, a 10 percent increase in weight in pounds from the sample mean of 181 pounds was associated with a 12 percent decrease in the probability of current employment, 5.4 percent fewer hours worked per week and 10 percent lower earnings in the previous month.

Weight did not correlate with employment or hours worked by African American women, but it was associated with increased welfare receipt. A 10 percent increase in weight in pounds from the sample mean of 185 pounds was associated with spending an extra half of an additional month per year on welfare.

Cawley and Danziger offer a potential policy response to their findings. If obesity negatively impacts labor market outcomes, one strategy to promote the transition from welfare to work may be to expand Medicaid to cover treatment for obesity, nutrition counseling and weight loss treatment.

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