Table 2.

Demographic, Employment, and Health Attributes of Older Workers: A Comparison of Poor and Non-Poor

Variable	Poor (n=121)	Non-Poor (n=3,295)	Test Statistic t-statistic/chi-square
Demographic Domain
Age	56.9	56.6
Female	64.5%	53.7%	χ2=5.42*
White	65.2%	82.4%	χ2=23.09***
Educational attainment	10.8	13.1	t=6.34***
Marital Statusb
Married	Ref.	ref.
Separated/divorced	19.2%	13.2%	χ2=7.87**
Widowed	14.2%	5.2%	χ2=24.79***
Never married	8.3%	2.7%	χ2=19.04***
Employment Domain
Annual work weeks	50.1	50.5
Tenure < 2 years	27.3%	14.8%	χ2=13.93***
Part-time employment	30.6%	13.0%	χ2=30.71***
Employer-covered health insurance	41.2%	70.1%	χ2=44.81***
Occupationb
Managerial	3.3%	15.2%	χ2=15.21***
Professional	11.6%	18.0%	χ2=5.37*
Sales	4.1%	9.3%	χ2=5.82*
Clerical/administrative	9.9%	18.1%	χ2=7.23*
Health/personal service	26.5%	8.7%	χ2=8.04*
Mechanics/construction/production	9.8%	9.9%
Farming/armed forces	1.7%	1.8%
Services	13.2%	4.8%	χ2=4.35*
Operators	Ref.	ref.
Health Domain
Self-rated healthb
Excellent	Ref.	ref.
Very good	23.1%	38.7%
Good	37.2%	29.0%	χ2=5.11*
Fair/poor	26.5%	12.4%	χ2=15.33***
Mental health (CESD score; range 0–8)	1.9	1.3	t=−3.42***
Health expenses	$1,309	$1,552

^aNotes. Unless otherwise noted, variable is not significant at 5% level of significance.

^bChi-square tests on categorical variables reflect comparison of relative (to referent category) proportions between working poor and non-poor.

^*p < .05

^**p < .01

^***p < .001