People of color are more likely to work long, irregular hours that could lead to severe health issues by age 50

The often tongue-in-cheek remark that work may be killing you—long hours, a demanding schedule, and mounds of stress resulting in restless nights—might literally be true, according to new research. 

Volatile work schedules, defined as working early mornings and well into the evening, late nights, or anything outside the traditional nine-to-five, can have material consequences for employees’ overall health and well-being, according to Wen-Jui Han, a professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. That’s all the more true for racial and ethnic minorities.

Han’s research, published earlier this month, analyzed the work schedules and sleep patterns—whether people got enough quality sleep—of more than 7,000 U.S. workers as part of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from the age of 22 to the time they were 50.

She found that employees who work long or irregular hours and forgo night-time sleep for their jobs suffer from depression, anxiety, and a host of other health issues that could lead to more chronic conditions like heart disease.

The health impact disproportionately affects people of color, who are more likely to work jobs with irregular hours, varied shifts, or multiple jobs. But even when Black professionals and other minorities work office jobs, Han says, they often feel the need to work harder and put in longer hours in order to succeed.

“That puts far more pressure and stress on minority groups in the workplace,” Han says. In dealing with stress, particularly work-related stress, they are much more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors like poor eating habits, drinking, smoking, and lack of sleep, she adds.

The study found that while just a third of the global workforce has what’s considered standard nine-to-five hours, Black Americans are more likely to work irregular hours and night shifts and, ultimately, get less sleep. On top of that, women still carry much of the childcare responsibility, which compounds the issue of irregular hours and the amount and quality of sleep.

Although there’s not a direct line between the amount of sleep one gets and poor health, Han’s research found that Black men, who reported receiving the fewest hours of sleep, were also the most likely to report having health issues if they had worked early hours and a volatile schedule earlier in life. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly a third of U.S. adults report getting less than the recommended seven or more hours of sleep each night. Lack of sleep can lead to mistakes at work and is the cause of many on-the-job injuries each year. On the health front, the CDC says that not getting enough sleep is linked with type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, and heart disease.

Not only is heart disease the leading cause of death for Americans, but Black Americans are also more vulnerable to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, according to Annapoorna Kini, a professor of medicine and cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Among Black Americans over the age of 20, 63% of men and 77% of women are overweight or obese, and, in general, Black people in the U.S. are more likely than white Americans to suffer from diabetes.

Han says there still needs to be a more significant conversation about how work affects people of color, particularly Black people and minority workers who disproportionately hold shift jobs. According to data from McKinsey, roughly 74% of Black workers do not have a college degree, which has historically limited the work available to them.

Beyond that, Han identifies a problem in how the U.S. thinks about and approaches work. She says that employees believe that by working longer hours, their bosses will view them as high achievers and reward them with more money or upward mobility. But that mentality can have a long-term impact on their health over the years, Han says.

“The big picture is that when we’re under pressure to serve the 24/7 economy, this is the long-term health consequence we suffer,” she says. “Companies have a large role to play in changing the kind of culture we have around work. We need to help take care of people because [workers] are the ones who make up the economy.”

Trey Williams
trey.williams@fortune.com

Today’s edition was curated by Ruth Umoh. Join her in NYC on April 25 for a DEI roundtable hosted by FleishmanHillard to discuss what lies ahead for the industry. Space is limited. Sign up here.

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