In this issue, Vandenheede et al1 publish new evidence for the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in all-cause mortality in three countries from Central/Eastern Europe (CEE) and in Russia. Although each of the four countries has faced different transitions in their population health after the fall of the Iron Curtain, relative differences in mortality are found in each of the four countries. Further, results are comparable to existent findings of differences in mortality from other, more consolidated European countries.2 ,3 In other words, today’s European countries (as well as many countries beyond Europe) face relative health differences that are found irrespectively of their broader social, political and historical context. This underlines the need for conceptual and empirical research to identify common mechanisms explaining the universality of health inequalities.

One such common mechanism is supposed to be the organisation of labour markets. Their basic principles are comparable in all western-type economies where individuals sell their labour force and specific qualifications on the labour market. Those principles are of interest because employment is crucial for health in many positive and negative ways. First, employment is the main source of income for the large majority, and thus determines the material circumstances that are then related to numerous health-related risks and resources. Second, it is well known that unemployment and precarious employment are particular strong predictors of impaired health and premature mortality.4 Third, work influences mental and physical health via a large range of physical and psychosocial occupational risk factors. We may thus assume that labour markets play a fundamental and universal role in generating the …