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A publication by researchers from CUNY SPH and the University of Utah highlights how occupations are valued differently in society, with some less likely to offer decent wages, benefits, or protections, and the preventable health inequities that result from these labor market hierarchies. The article is written by CUNY SPH doctoral alum Emma Vignola, along with master’s alum Luis Saavedra, Associate Professor Emma Tsui, and Associate Professor Emily Ahonen from the University of Utah.
Jobs that are poorly paid, insecure, and unstable, referred to as precarious employment, are associated with poor mental and physical health, the authors say. Researchers commonly think of precarious employment as the result of a power imbalance between workers and employers. In the article, the authors propose building on that framework by using social reproduction theory – the idea that work required to reproduce daily life and society is undervalued in capitalist societies, more likely to be precarious and viewed as “low-skilled,” because it generates less profit.
To illustrate, they describe findings from interviews with precariously employed food workers, including restaurant, grocery, and food packaging workers, in New York City. Participants were asked about the quality of their jobs and about the social value of their labor, a question prompted by national conversations about “essential workers” that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to stress and anxiety linked with unfair or toxic interactions with managers and employers, participants felt frustrated that their labor often seemed invisible, despite identifying their role in bringing food to people’s tables, allowing other workers in a fast-paced city to save time, or contributing to the city’s economy and social fabric.
The authors point to this as an example of the ways other workers, those in “high-skilled”, securely employed, managerial and professional jobs, benefit from precariously employed workers such as domestic cleaners, nannies, beauticians, and cooks, making precarious employment all the more unjust.
They suggest that the sense of one’s work being undervalued might lead to negative mental health effects worth investigating in future research. In addition, they discuss the importance of collectively questioning the ways some occupations are valued more than others as part of the struggle for health equity.
“Public health researchers have identified precarious employment as a threat to population health,” says Vignola. “We add to that conversation by asking why are specific jobs more likely to be precarious than others? And how can we challenge that as researchers and members of society so that all workers have access to decent, health-promoting jobs, regardless of what they do?”
