scholarly journals The Employment Effect in Retail Trade of California's 1988 Minimum Wage Increase

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taeil Kim ◽  
Lowell J. Taylor
ILR Review ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Card

In July 1988, California's minimum wage rose from $3.35 to $4.25. During the previous year, 11% of workers in the state and 50% of California teenagers had earned less than the new state minimum. Using published data and samples from the Current Population Survey, the author compares changes in the labor market outcomes of California workers to the corresponding changes in a group of states with no increase in the minimum wage. The minimum wage increase raised the earnings of low-wage workers by 5–10%. Contrary to conventional predictions, however, there was no decline in teenage employment, or any relative loss of jobs in retail trade.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Wang ◽  
Morley Gunderson

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to estimate the causal effect of minimum wages on the employment of low-skilled workers in less developed regions of China. Design/methodology/approach Based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, a double-difference (DD) methodology is used to compare the employment of low-skilled individuals before and after a minimum wage increase in their provinces with a comparison group of individuals in provinces that did not have a minimum wage increase. Also, a triple-difference methodology (DDD) is used that also includes an additional control group of highly educated workers as a within-province internal comparison group that should not be affected by a minimum wage increase. Findings No evidence of an adverse employment effect is found in any of the 36 different estimates, consistent with recent US evidence that uses a similar DD methodology. Research limitations/implications The data are not national representative; rather heavily weighted towards the less developed Central, Western and parts of the Eastern Regions of China. This may partially explain the absence of the theoretically expected adverse employment effect. Other related reasons are discussed, including: lack of enforcement in those less developed regions; a large presence of state-owned enterprises in the regions where employment security clause remains intact; the relatively less developed labour markets in the regions including where employers may behave in a monopsony fashion in their labour markets; shock effects; and cost offsets from reduced fringe benefits and increases in the pace of work. This paper was unable to disentangle the separate effect of these possible factors. Originality/value This is one of the few studies on minimum wages in China to focus on low-skilled workers in less developed regions, to use individuals as the unit of observation rather than aggregates, and to provide causal estimates based on DD and DDD methodologies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Redmond ◽  
Karina Doorley ◽  
Seamus McGuinness

Abstract We use distribution regression analysis to study the impact of a 6% increase in the Irish minimum wage on the distribution of hourly wages and household income. Wage inequality, measured by the ratio of wages in the 90th and 10th percentiles and the 75th and 25th percentiles, decreased by approximately 8 and 4%, respectively. The results point towards wage spillover effects up to the 30th percentile of the wage distribution. We show that minimum wage workers are spread throughout the household income distribution and are often located in high-income households. Therefore, while we observe strong effects on the wage distribution, the impact of a minimum wage increase on the household income distribution is quite limited.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 306
Author(s):  
Suzana Laporšek ◽  
Milan Vodopivec ◽  
Matija Vodopivec

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