Minimum Wage Evidence

Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment? Accounting for Geterogeneity and Selectivity in State Panel Data

04/01/2011

Sylvia A. Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube, and Michael Reich. National Employment Law Project. March, 2011.

The Wage and Employment Impact of Minimum-Wage Laws in Three Cities

03/22/2011

John Schmitt and David Rosnick. Center for Economic Policy Research. March 22, 2011.

“The Wage and Employment Impact of Minimum-Wage Laws in Three Cities” analyzes the effects of minimum wage increases in Santa Fe, San Francisco (which has one of the highest wage rates in the country), and Washington D.C., in comparison with their surrounding suburbs and nearby urban centers that didn’t experience similar wage hikes.

Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties

01/01/2010

By Arindrajit Dube, T. William Lester and Michael Reich. Review of Economics and Statistics. 2010.

The Minimum Wage Merry-Go-Round

05/13/2008

Ezra Klein. The American Prospect. May 13, 2008.

Blogging for the The American Prospect, Ezra Klein gives an excellent breakdown of the state of the minimum wage debate: “The Minimum Wage Merry-Go-Round” He lists all the usual arguments against it, and easily rebuts them all. “We have passed increases in the minimum wage a fair number of times in our history, and have never -- seriously, never -- seen mass layoffs or economic chaos result.”

UK's (New) National Minimum Wage Isn't A Job Killer

03/01/2008

Low Pay Commission Report. March 2008.

The (British) Low Pay Commission report, “National Minimum Wage”, released roughly ten years after the Labour government enacted a National Minimum Wage law (Britain’s first). Employers warned the measure would harm employment (“fear of job losses…dominated discussion”).

The Economic Effects Of A Citywide Minimum Wage

07/01/2007

Arindrajit Dube, Suresh Naidu and Michael Reich. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. July 2007.

Published in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review “The Economic Effects Of A Citywide Minimum Wage” (Subscription Required) is the first study of the results of San Francisco’s decision to index the minimum wage to inflation. This study focuses on the restaurant industry, both fast food and sit down, and finds that the new law increased pay without negatively affecting employment rates.

A Fish Is Not a Fowl: Tax Credits and the Minimum Wage

02/27/2007

Max B. Sawicky. Economic Policy Institute. February 27, 2007.

“A fish is not a fowl: Tax credits and the minimum wage” does a thorough job of describing the benefits of tax credits targeted towards low-income people, a policy often put forward by conservatives as an alternative to the minimum wage. But Sawicky explains that the minimum wage does a lot of things that tax credits simply can’t (including providing an immediately tangible benefit to workers). Tax credits are best seen as a policy to be used in tandem with the minimum wage, not as an alternative to it.

States with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth

03/30/2006

By James Parrott, Brent Kramer and Oliver Cooke. Fiscal Policy Institute . March 30, 2006.

Making Work Pay: The Impact of the 1996-97 Minimum Wage Increase

05/01/1998

Jared Bernstein and John Schmitt. Economic Policy Institute. May 1, 1998.

“Making Work Pay: The Impact of the 1996-97 Minimum Wage Increase”. When the federal government raised the minimum wage from $4.25 to $4.75 in 1996, and then to $5.15 in 1997, the usual crowd predicted economic doom (also that the benefits would mostly accrue to the middle-class or to teenagers—supposedly people who didn’t need the help).

Cooked To Order

05/01/1996

John Schmitt. The American Prospect. May 1, 1996.

“Cooked To Order” reveals the fast food industry’s attack on David Card and Alan Krueger following their groundbreaking book Myth and Measurement, which debunked the conservative claim that modest increases in the minimum wage cost jobs. (Partially due to the fact that higher wages increase productivity, and decrease turnover.)

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Minimum Wage