The Minimum Wage and Crime

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1213-1235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Beauchamp ◽  
Stacey Chan

Abstract Does crime respond to changes in the minimum wage? A growing body of empirical evidence indicates that increases in the minimum wage have a displacement effect on low-skilled workers. Economic reasoning provides the possibility that disemployment may cause youth to substitute from legal work to crime. However, there is also the countervailing effect of a higher wage raising the opportunity cost of crime for those who remain employed. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort to measure the effect of increases in the minimum wage on self-reported criminal activity and examine employment–crime substitution. Exploiting changes in state and federal minimum wage laws from 1997 to 2010, we find that workers who are affected by a change in the minimum wage are more likely to commit crime, become idle, and lose employment. Individuals experiencing a binding minimum wage change were more likely to commit crime and work only part time. Analyzing heterogeneity shows those with past criminal connections are especially likely to see decreased employment and increased crime following a policy change, suggesting that reduced employment effects dominate any wage effects. The findings have implications for policy regarding both the low-wage labor market and efforts to deter criminal activity.

1984 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL McKEE ◽  
EDWIN G. WEST
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Erzo F.P. Luttmer

Abstract By not allowing wages to clear the labor market, the minimum wage could cause workers with low reservation wages to be rationed out while equally skilled workers with higher reservation wages are employed. This paper exploits overlapping CPS panels to more precisely identify those most affected by the minimum wage, a group I refer to as the "unskilled." I test for inefficient rationing by examining whether the reservation wages of employed unskilled workers in states where the 1990-1991 federal minimum wage increase had the largest impact rose relative to reservation wages of unskilled workers in other states. I find that proxies for reservation wages of unskilled workers in high-impact states did not rise relative to reservation wages in other states, suggesting that the increase in the minimum wage did not cause jobs to be allocated less efficiently. However, even if rationing is efficient, the minimum wage can still entail other efficiency costs (e.g., from employment reductions).


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Claure ◽  
Jorge DDvalos ◽  
Alejandra Leyton ◽  
Vanessa SSnchez ◽  
Christian Valencia

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.


2007 ◽  
Vol XLII (2) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Neumark ◽  
Olena Nizalova
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Jennifer Romich ◽  
Mark Long ◽  
Scott Allard ◽  
Anne Althauser

This paper describes a uniquely comprehensive database constructed from merged state administrative data.  State Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems provide an important source of data for understanding employment effects of policy interventions but have also lack several key types of information: personal demographics, non-earnings income, and household associations.  With UI data, researchers can show overall earnings or employment trends or policy impacts, but cannot distinguish whether these trends or impacts differ by race or gender, how they affect families and children, or whether total income or other measure of well-being change. This paper describes a uniquely comprehensive new administrative dataset, the Washington Merged Longitudinal Administrative Database (WMLAD), created by University of Washington researchers to examine distributional and household economic effects of the Seattle $15 minimum wage ordinance, an intervention that more than doubled the federal minimum wage.  WMLAD augments UI data with state administrative voter, licensing, social service, income transfer, and vital statistics records. The union set of all individuals who appear in any of these agency datasets will provide a near-census of state residents and will augment UI records with information on age, sex, race/ethnicity, public assistance receipt, and household membership. In this paper, we describe 1.) our relationship with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services that permits this data access and allows construction of this dataset using restricted personal identifiers; 2.) the merging and construction process, including imputing race and ethnicity and constructing quasi-households from address co-location; and 3.) planned benchmarking and analysis work.


Author(s):  
Mariya B. Krapiventseva

The article, using the historical experience of Tula Arms Factory as an example, examines the problem of training workers on the job in the 1920s, insuffi ciently covered in historical science. Based on a review of a signifi cant amount of archival sources, a detailed description of various forms of technical training at the enterprise is given, supported by statistical data. The dependence of the activities of the plant management on training workers on specifi c production needs is noted. The author also pays attention to the problems of material, technical, personnel and organisational order, which reduced the quality of training. It was noted that due to staff turnover in the fi rst years of its existence, technical studies and advanced training were inextricably linked with the training of new employees. As a result, it is concluded that the technical education network at Tula Arms Factory had been successfully established by the end of the specifi ed period, the main channels of which included advanced training circles, vocational courses, individual and brigade apprenticeships. This provision is confi rmed by consideration of the private aspects of the training process, by identifying the role of graduates in the recruitment of the Tula Arms Factory by skilled workers. The materials of this study are intended to supplement the picture of the positive experience of training personnel for the Russian arms factories


2021 ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Kshama Mumbai

“The Lawrence Textile Strike, also known as the Bread and Roses Strike”, prompted the first minimum wage law in the United States in 1912. Various states followed suit over the next two decades, and in 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which created a federal minimum wage (FLSA).The basic incentive behind the introduction of the Act was to reduce income inequality.A rise in minimum wage acts as a form of relocation of wealth from higher-income people to lower-income people. In principle, Congress amends the FLSA on a regular basis to raise the federal minimum wage to levels necessary for even the lowest-paying workforces in the economy.It also aims to help low-wage workers benefit from overall economywide advances in living standards. However, this has historically not always been the case. In 1968, The Poor People’s 1 Campaign started because of not raising the minimum wage to sufficient levels . The explicit purpose of the federal minimum wage is to help increase consumer purchasing power which stimulates the economy and to keep America's workforces out of poverty.However,the law failed to include the automatic cost of living adjustments and led to inflation eroding the real value of the minimum wage over time. There is a dire need for legislative action to raise the nation’s wage floor, more so than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic.Unless consumer's purchasing power is increased,it will be difficult to come out of this recession.Further,the minimum wage is a direct concern for poverty levels and gender / racial inequality.This paper aims to analyze previous work on the issue and provide further recommendations for the same.


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