Area with small businesses healthier

Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations -- with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes -- than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study of 3,060 counties and parishes in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.

Some sociologists argue that small businesses -- unlike chain retail "big box" stores and large manufacturing plants -- have a greater investment in the community and thus have more at stake when it comes to the well-being of employees, customers and other local citizens. The researchers, who analyzed national population, health, business and housing data, found that the greater the proportion of small businesses, the healthier the population.

"The old way of thinking was that you wanted to work for a big company because of pension plans, health insurance, dental insurance," said the co-author. "But many of them have moved overseas to cheaper labor markets. So what we see are larger retailers, usually next to interstates, that pay low wages and may not even offer full-time jobs with benefits, but instead hire people to work 30 hours a week. There's a high turnover."

Larger companies showed a large drop in wages -- 33 percent in real dollars -- and access to health insurance between 1988 and 2003, previous research has shown. Amid restructuring and globalization, some large businesses are giving employees furloughs from full-time jobs, then rehiring them as short-time contract workers with no benefits. While locally owned businesses are not adding greater compensation or benefits, the pay gap is shrinking.

Said one researcher: "When someone creates a 'mom and pop' business, it's a huge step to bring that first employee on board. If it's a relative or neighbor, they'll bend over backward to hire and retain them. They're going to bring on board somebody they trust, and they'll pull every hair and every tooth in their head before they lay off someone who's their neighbor."

Small businesses are more likely to support bond issues for health infrastructures, recruit physicians, push for local anti-smoking legislation, promote community health programs and activities and support local farmers' markets.