Men's Income Trajectories and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife

Abstract

Using time-varying, prospectively measured income in a nationally representative sample of Baby-Boomer men (the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - 1979 [NLSY79]), we identify eight group-based trajectories of income between ages 25-49 and use multinomial treatment models to describe the associations between group-based income trajectories and mental and physical health at midlife. We find remarkable rigidity in income trajectories: less than 25% of our sample experiences significant upward or downward mobility between the ages of 25 to 49 and most who move remain or move into poverty. Men's physical and mental health at age fifty is strongly associated with their income trajectories, and some upwardly mobile men achieve the same physical and mental health as the highest earning men after adjusting for selection. The worse physical and mental health of men on other income trajectories is largely attributable to their early life disadvantages, health behaviors, and cumulative work experiences.

Figure 1.

Men’s group-based trajectories of personal income, ages 25–49 See tiff file