scholarly journals Do Lower Minimum Wages for Young Workers Raise Their Employment? Evidence from a Danish Discontinuity

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Thustrup Kreiner ◽  
Daniel Reck ◽  
Peer Ebbesen Skov

We estimate the impact of youth minimum wages on youth employment by exploiting a large discontinuity in Danish minimum wage rules at age 18, using monthly payroll records for the Danish population. The hourly wage jumps by 40% at the discontinuity. Employment falls by 33%, and total input of hours decreases by 45%, leaving the aggregate wage payment almost unchanged. We show theoretically how the discontinuity may be exploited to evaluate policy changes. The relevant elasticity for evaluating the effect on youth employment of changes in their minimum wage is in the range 0.6 to 1.1.

ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Sturn

The author investigates effects of minimum wage rates on low-skilled, female low-skilled, and youth employment. The sample consists of 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1997 to 2013 for low-skilled workers and from 1983 to 2013 for young workers. Six different static or dynamic estimation approaches are applied on different versions of the specifications, controlling for up to quadratic time trends. The author further investigates the effects over the long run and over the business cycle as well as the effects of high minimum wages and of institutional complementarities. The findings provide little evidence of substantial disemployment effects for low-skilled, female low-skilled, or young workers. The estimated employment elasticities are small and statistically indistinguishable from zero. The author then considers why his results on youth employment differ from those of Neumark and Wascher (2004), showing that they overstate precision and that small changes in their specifications lead to minimum wage effects close to zero.


2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 1405-1454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doruk Cengiz ◽  
Arindrajit Dube ◽  
Attila Lindner ◽  
Ben Zipperer

Abstract We estimate the effect of minimum wages on low-wage jobs using 138 prominent state-level minimum wage changes between 1979 and 2016 in the United States using a difference-in-differences approach. We first estimate the effect of the minimum wage increase on employment changes by wage bins throughout the hourly wage distribution. We then focus on the bottom part of the wage distribution and compare the number of excess jobs paying at or slightly above the new minimum wage to the missing jobs paying below it to infer the employment effect. We find that the overall number of low-wage jobs remained essentially unchanged over the five years following the increase. At the same time, the direct effect of the minimum wage on average earnings was amplified by modest wage spillovers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Our estimates by detailed demographic groups show that the lack of job loss is not explained by labor-labor substitution at the bottom of the wage distribution. We also find no evidence of disemployment when we consider higher levels of minimum wages. However, we do find some evidence of reduced employment in tradeable sectors. We also show how decomposing the overall employment effect by wage bins allows a transparent way of assessing the plausibility of estimates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Izzun Nafiah

Government policies that are directly related to the relationship between workers and companies are determining minimum wages. The effect of this minimum wage becomes more varied for developing countries with large populations such as Indonesia. Young workers have sensitive effect to fluctuation of the minimum wage policy, whereas the percentage of Indonesia young workers is more than 20 percent of the total workforce in 2015-2019. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the effect of minimum wage policies on the status of young workers in Indonesia using quantitative data from the National Labour Force Survey (Sakernas) 2015-2019 with the multinomial logit analysis method. The results of this study are an increase in the minimum wage decreases the probability of young workers to have status as paid workers in the covered sector. In urban areas, an increase in the minimum wage increases the probability of young male workers being unemployed and decreases the probability being self-employed. On the other hand, an increase in the minimum wage causes female urban workers reducing the probability of being unemployed and increasing the probability of them being self-employed. Therefore, the minimum wage policy must be balanced with strengthen the education and training and also consider policies that increase youth labor market opportunities but do not increase employer costs for young workers. On the other hand, the government must be continuous to improve policies that support the progress of informal sector, for example in terms of providing capital, reducing loan interest rates, etc.


JEJAK ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-306
Author(s):  
Robert Tua Siregar ◽  
Hery Pandapotan Silitonga ◽  
Khairunnisah Lubis ◽  
Acai Sudirman

The purpose of this research was to find out the effect of the percentage in development of Pematangsiantar city’s regional minimum wages, and the problem in this study how GRDP and RWP affect on the percentage of development of Regionl Minimum Wage at Pematangsiantar City. The method used was quantitative descriptive analysis. Data analysis used were Classic Assumption Test, Multiple Linear Regression, Correlation Coefficient, Determination, F-test and t-test object on RMW at Pematangsiantar city. Finding of research and results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1). The results of the multiple linear regression analysis test are  that the GRDP and RWP had a positive effect on the RMW of Pematangsiantar City, 2). The results of the correlation coefficient indicate that the GRDP and RWP of Pematangsiantar City on its RMW were at a very strong level, while the coefficient of determination of 67.5%  at high or low of the minimum wages can be explained by the GRDP and RWP, while the remaining  of 32.5% was influenced by other factors which were not included in this study, 3). Hypothesis Test for  F-test indicates that the GRDP and RWP influences significantly on Pematang city’s RMW, and for the t- test indicates that the GRDP and RWP had a positive and significant effect on the RMW in Pematangsiantar City from 2005 to 2018. This means that as the GRDP increases, the value of setting Pematangsiantar City's minimum wage in the following year will also increase, and vice versa. The increase of  laborers/workers demands will affect the standard of regioanalwages that will be determined, this happens  because wages will always adjust to the labor market demand. The stipulation of the minimum wage, it has an impact on GRDP in Pematangsiantar City, because the consumptive rate will be carried out in the place where it gets paid.


Author(s):  
Thomson Sitompul ◽  
Yansen Simangunsong

Unlike the previous study in determinant of labor absorption, which focused on economic sector and took up regional scope, this paper examines the impact of Gross Domestic Product, Foreign Direct Investment and Minimum Wages on labor absorption in Indonesia which take the national scope and aggregate labor by using secondary series of time series data (1990-2015). This study contributes to the limited literature on aggregate employment and national scope as the impact of the minimum wage, GDP, FDI in developing countries, especially in Indonesia. By using multiple linear regression models, surprisingly, we find that GDP and Minimum Wages have a positive and significant impact to increase employment while FDI  does not affect employment in Indonesia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Arindrajit Dube ◽  
Attila Lindner

Cities are increasingly setting their own minimum wages, and this trend has accelerated sharply in recent years. While in 2010 there were only three cities with their own minimum wages exceeding the state or federal standard, by 2020 there were 42. This new phenomenon raises the question: is it desirable to have city-level variation in minimum wage polices? We discuss the main trade-offs emerging from local variation in minimum wage polices and evaluate their empirical relevance. First, we document what type of cities raise minimum wages, and we discuss how these characteristics can potentially impact the effectiveness of city-level minimum wage policies. Second, we summarize the evolving evidence on city-level minimum wage changes and provide some new evidence of our own. Early evidence suggests that the impact of the policy on wages and employment to date has been broadly similar to the evidence on state- and federal-level minimum wage changes. Overall, city-level minimum wages seem to be able to tailor the policy to the local economic environment without imposing substantial distortions in allocation of labor and businesses across locations.


Author(s):  
Brian Nolan

This chapter addresses the central question of how governments can seek to underpin real wage growth for working households over time. It looks first at the role that minimum wages can play in supporting wages and household incomes in the middle as well as lower parts of the distribution. This is investigated through a simulation exercise looking at the impact of a substantial increase in the minimum wage in the UK, bringing out the broader lessons to be learned for rich countries. A variety of other routes through which policy might seek to support wage growth are then set out and discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 558-560

Etienne Wasmer of Sciences Po and LIEPP reviews, “The Minimum Wage and Labor Market Outcomes” by Christopher J. Flinn. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Presents a model based on search and bargaining to use in investigating the impact of a minimum wage on labor market outcomes. Discusses descriptive evidence on minimum wage effects; a model of minimum wage effects on labor market careers; labor market and welfare impacts of minimum wages; minimum wage effects on labor market outcomes—a selective survey; assessing the welfare impacts of actual changes in the minimum wage; econometric issues; model estimates and tests; optimal minimum wages; the on-the-job search; and heterogeneity. Flinn is Professor of Economics at New York University and Senior Research Fellow at Collegio Carlo Alberto.”


ILR Review ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Machin ◽  
Alan Manning

Using data on Wages Council coverage from the United Kingdom New Earnings Survey, the authors examine the impact of mandated minimum wages on wage dispersion and employment in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. They find evidence that a dramatic decline in the toughness of the regulation imposed by the Wages Councils through the 1980s—a decline, that is, in the level of the minimum wage relative to the average wage—significantly contributed to widening wage dispersion over those years. There is, however, no evidence of an increase in employment resulting from the weakening bite of the Wages Council minimum pay rates. Instead, consistent with the conclusions of several recent U.S. studies, the findings suggest that the minimum wage had either no effect or a positive effect on employment.


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