Minimum wage raises could lower suicide rates, study says

Raising the minimum wage could lower the suicide rate, according to a study published last week, delivering labor advocates a tantalizing new finding about the broader effects of wage changes even as some experts said other factors could explain the decrease.More than 47,000 Americans died by suicide in 2017, and with other so-called deaths of despair — drug overdoses and alcoholism — it has grown into a slow-motion public health crisis. The phenomenon is difficult to study, and rese