Giving Compass' Take:

• Tom Jacobs shares research that shows that hard work and poverty - not dispair - are killing working-class Americans. 

• How can funders work to ensure that workers are protected from abuse by employers? What do working-class individuals in your community need to escape poverty?

• Learn about policy recommendations for resorting opportunity for the working class. 

The term "deaths of despair" has become common in recent years. Citing the opioid epidemic and a spike in suicides, researchers and journalists alike have suggested that much of the American working class, having seen its well-paying jobs disappear, has essentially given up on life.

It's true that there's a growing gap in life expectancy between better-educated and less-educated Americans. But is despair really what's driving this divergence? A new study raises serious doubts.

A research team led by Arline Geronimus of the University of Michigan reports that, while drug overdoses are a significant contributor to untimely deaths among the working class (at least among whites), less-educated Americans also suffer higher mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and various types of cancer.

These illnesses, the researchers suggest in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, may reflect the accumulated wear-and-tear of a lifetime of hard work and struggling to make ends meet.

"Rather than giving up in the face of hopelessness, less-educated Americans may be losing ground for exactly the opposite reason—because they work so hard, they bear the consequences of years of stress," Geronimus said in announcing the findings.

Read the full article about hard work and poverty by Tom Jacobs at Pacific Standard.