Employment Effects of Minimum Wages

ILR Review ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Lester
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Employment Effects

scholarly journals The Minimum Wage Affects Them All: Evidence on Employment Spillovers in the Roofing Sector

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bodo Aretz ◽  
Terry Gregory ◽  
Melanie Arntz
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Wage Distribution ◽  
Employment Effects ◽  
Eastern Germany

Abstract This study contributes to the sparse literature on employment spillovers of minimum wages. We exploit the minimum wage introduction and subsequent increases in the German roofing sector that gave rise to an internationally unprecedented hard bite of a minimum wage. We look at the chances of remaining employed in the roofing sector for workers with and without a binding minimum wage and use the plumbing sector that is not subject to a minimum wage as a suitable benchmark sector. By estimating the counterfactual wage that plumbers would receive in the roofing sector given their characteristics, we are able to identify employment effects along the entire wage distribution. The results indicate that the chances for roofers to remain employed in the sector in eastern Germany deteriorated along the entire wage distribution. Such employment spillovers to workers without a binding minimum wage may result from scale effects and/or capital-labour substitution.

[Employment Effects of Minimum Wages]: Reply

ILR Review ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 264 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Employment Effects

scholarly journals The Econometrics and Economics of the Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Getting from Known Unknowns to Known Knowns

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Neumark
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Definitive Answer ◽  
Employment Effects ◽  
Conflicting Evidence ◽  
Known Unknowns ◽  
Wage Increases

Abstract I discuss the econometrics and the economics of past research on the effects of minimum wages on employment in the United States. My intent is to try to identify key questions raised in the recent literature, and some from the earlier literature, which I think hold the most promise for understanding the conflicting evidence and arriving at a more definitive answer about the employment effects of minimum wages. My secondary goal is to discuss how we can narrow the range of uncertainty about the likely effects of the large minimum wage increases becoming more prevalent in the United States. I discuss some insights from both theory and past evidence that may be informative about the effects of high minimum wages, and try to emphasize what research can be done now and in the near future to provide useful evidence to policymakers on the results of the coming high minimum wage experiment, whether in the United States or in other countries.

Employment effects of union-bargained minimum wages

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 694-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Skedinger
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Wage Distribution ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Employment Effects ◽  
Employment Transitions ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Econometric Approach ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of collectively agreed increases in minimum wages for manual workers on employment transitions and hours. Design/methodology/approach – The econometric approach relies on the identification of workers affected by minimum wage changes, depending on their position in the wage distribution and contrasts outcomes for these workers to those for unaffected workers, with slightly higher wages. Findings – The analysis suggests that separations increase as minimum wages increase and that substitution between worker groups in response to changes in minimum wages is important in retail. In general, though, hours do not change much as minimum wages increase. Research limitations/implications – Analyses that deal with employment consequences of increasing minimum wages but disregard hours may exaggerate the overall decline in employment to the extent that job losses are concentrated among low-paid, part-time workers. Practical implications – With union-bargained minimum wages, unions and employers need to carefully consider the effects of increasing rates on employment. Social implications – The findings that there is a trade-off between higher wages among the low-paid and employment loss and that employment to some extent is reshuffled between individuals should be important from a welfare perspective. Originality/value – The literature on employment effects of minimum wages is large, but very few studies are concerned with union-bargained minimum wages. The assumptions of the econometric model are tested in a novel way by imposing fictitious minimum wages on lower-level non-manuals in the same industry, with turnover characteristics similar to those of manuals but covered by a different collective agreement with non-binding actual minimum wages.

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