Higher-than Expected Social Security Reliance Among Educated Black Americans: Minorities' Diminished Returns in...

While educational attainment is generally associated with reduced reliance on Social Security and disability benefits, Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory suggests that the socioeconomic benefits of educational attainment are not equally distributed across racial groups and are weaker for minoritized populations. This study explores the association between educational attainment and reliance on Social Security and disability benefits among Black and White adults in the United States.

Building on the MDRs framework, we analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2023 to examine how educational attainment impacts reliance on Social Security disability income, disability benefits, and public assistance for Black and White adults.

We used a nationally representative sample of Black and White adults from the NHIS 2023 dataset. The outcomes assessed were reliance on three income sources: (1) Social Security disability income, (2) disability benefit income, and (3) public assistance disability income. Educational attainment was classified into three levels: less than high school (reference), high school diploma to some college, and college graduate or more. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between educational attainment and reliance on each income source, with separate analyses for Black and White adults to evaluate differential effects.

Higher levels of educational attainment (high school diploma to some college and college graduate or more) were associated with lower odds of relying on Social Security disability, disability benefits, and public assistance. However, the protective effects of educational attainment were notably stronger for White adults than for Black adults. Among Black adults, even high educational attainment showed limited effectiveness in reducing reliance on these income sources, underscoring the Minorities' Diminished Returns (MDRs) phenomenon.

Although educational attainment reduces reliance on Social Security and disability-related income sources, these protective effects are less pronounced for Black adults compared to White adults. The findings reveal persistent racial disparities in the economic returns of education, suggesting that structural factors may undermine the socioeconomic and health benefits of educational achievement for Black Americans. Targeted policy interventions may be needed to improve economic stability for Black adults, including those with higher educational credentials.