Health and wealth tend to be correlated—both positive or negative—depending on the level of wealth or the health condition underconsideration. Like health, wealth disparities are present and often exist along racial, gender, and other demographic lines.
Wealth is all of the assets of worth owned by a person, corporation, community, orcountry minus debts. Wealth can cushion unexpected hardships due to illness or injury and allow for individuals to continue meeting their basic needs, like food and shelter, without an interruption of payments. Accumulated wealth can also aid if wages are lost due to a health event and can be passed to the next generation in the form of resources.
Home ownership is a measure of wealth that has a protective impact on health.
Certain segments of wealth have been associated with positive or negative health outcomes. Home ownership is a measure of wealth that has a protective impact on health. According to data from the American Community Survey, home ownership for Black households in Ohio has dropped by 11% since 2010, with only 36.1% of Black households owning their own homes in 2022, compared to 72.7% of white households.
The low rate of homeownership for Black households is a result of decades of discriminatory policies such as redlining that are still having a significant impact today. Homeownership contributes to wealth building when homes increase in value. From 2019 to 2022, net housing equity is what primarily drove wealth accumulation for Black Americans. Increasing homeownership access among Black Ohioans can create opportunities for wealth accumulation.
A wealth increase may not close the wealth gap
Wealth in general has a positive impact on health and provides financial stability when unexpected expense or loss of wages occur. Though wealth increases occurred during the pandemic, the racial wealth gap continued to widen. Between 2019 and 2022, the median wealth gap between Black and White households increased by almost $50,000, bringing the total difference between the two households to $240,120. While median wealth for Black households grew by around $17,000 (from $27,970 to $44,890), it still lags behind non-white Latino or Hispanic households (approximately $62,000), white households (approximately $285,000),and Asian American households (approximately $536,000). For every dollar that White households had in 2022, Black households only had $0.15.
The required annual income before taxes to make ends meet is $81,620.
When income is less than or equal to expenses, it becomes impossible to accumulate wealth. Currently, the minimum hourly wage in Ohio is $10.45. For two working adults with one child, the living hourly wage is $19.81. With daily living expenses, like childcare, housing, and food, the required annual income before taxes to make ends meet is $81,620. According to data from the American Community Survey, most households in Ohio are likely not making enough to effectively build wealth.
Income and health through the life span
In addition to impacting the ability to accumulate wealth, income has an impact on health throughout the lifespan. Higher rates of mental illness, chronic disease, higher mortality rates, and lower life expectancy area few of the outcomes that have been linked to low incomes. In Ohio, the median household income for Black households was over $30,000 less than White households. This disparity widens even more when looking at Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander households: these households made over $42,000 less than White households in Ohio. When comparing the median household income pre-and post-pandemic, incomes for all races did not keep up with 2022 inflation. More concerningly, the income for Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander dropped significantly since 2018 – these individuals are making half of what was expected in 2018 when adjusting for inflation.
Racial disparities in both wealth and income persist in Ohio; leading to increased risk of poor health outcomes of Black residents. Conversations about the legacy of structural racism and discriminatory policies that underly both health and wealth disparities and need to be studied in conjunction. While wealth can be a protective factor it is hard for many Ohioans, especially BIPOC Ohioans, to accumulate wealth. Until the underlying racial disparities can be addressed,health supports need be continued or be put into place to begin to close the widening disparity in health outcomes.
