| Summary: | This article deals with the issue of social inequalities in health and the impact of societal context on these inequalities. It discusses the health differences between people with jobs and those who are unemployed, belonging to different demographic and social strata, as well as the influence of welfare state on these differences. Data from the European Social Survey (ESS 2006–2012, 33 countries), the World Bank and the International Labour Organization was analyzed utilizing statistical methods of two-level modeling. It has been established that health differences in European countries are due to social demographics, employment status and the combined influence of these variables. Unemployment has a greater effect on elderly people and leads to a greater deterioration of their health, as it is harder to them to find a new job. The growth of countries’ economic well-being and an increase in public social expenditures entails a reduction in the gender and age differences in health. Public social support positively affects the health status of respondents with low education. Increased public spending on unemployment helps overcome the negative cumulative effects on the health of those with a low level of education and without a job, however, the differences between the employed and the unemployed are not reduced – on the contrary, they grow even larger compared to less generous countries. The reason for this is a heightened sense of relative deprivation among the unemployed in developed societies.
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