State Minimum Wages and Food Insecurity Among Households Receiving Government Food Assistance

BACKGROUND: While the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aims to reduce food insecurity among low-income households, nearly half of recipients remain food insecure. Increasing state minimum wages could help improve food security, but because SNAP benefits are income-dependent, net effects are unclear. METHODS: Using the US Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (2002-2019), we linked households interviewed in two consecutive Decembers to create a 2-year panel. The primary sample included SNAP recipient households with at least one adult working in year 1. The exposure was the average effective state minimum wage (2019 $) for each state and year. We estimated prevalence differences in food insecurity per $1 increase in minimum wage using a within-household linear fixed-effects model adjusting for time-varying economic confounders and concurrent safety-net policies. We investigated variation in the effect by household and family structure, race and ethnicity, and educational attainment using stratified models. RESULTS: Overall estimates were most compatible with protective effects (prevalence difference per 10,000 households: -298, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -673, 77). The strongest protective estimates were for senior-headed (-1,472, 95% CI: -2,869, -76), Hispanic (-865, 95% CI: -1,638, -92), and some college households (-988, 95% CI: -1,664, -312). Estimates for Indigenous households were imprecise and possibly harmful (900, 95% CI: -736, 2,537). Most other subgroup estimates were near zero. CONCLUSIONS: Increased minimum wages may modestly support food security for working SNAP households. As SNAP benefit rules evolve, these findings suggest that minimum-wage policies can complement and reinforce the program's goals to protect low-income households from food hardship.