Abstract
The minimum wage, the lowest wage rate legally payable by employers to workers, derives support from concern about the equity of market processes. Because employment may fall in response to an increase in the minimum wage and because the majority of low-wage workers do not come from families in poverty, the minimum wage may have modest benefits as a poverty reduction tool. While there are variations across studies, evidence from the United States suggests that the economy-wide employment effects of wage minimums at the levels at which they have been implemented in the United States are negative but not large.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Ashenfelter, O., and R.S. Smith. 1979. Compliance with the minimum wage law. Journal of Political Economy 87: 333–350.
Brown, C., C. Gilroy, and A. Kohen. 1982. The effect of the minimum wage on employment and unemployment. Journal of Economic Literature 20: 487–528.
Card, D., and A.B.. Krueger. 1994. Minimum wages and employment: A case study of the fast-food industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. American Economic Review 84: 772–793.
Card, D., and A.B.. Krueger. 1995. Myth and measurement: The new economics of the minimum wage. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Colberg, M.R. 1960. Minimum wage effects on Florida’s economic development. Journal of Law and Economics 3: 106–117.
Eccles, M., and R.B. Freeman. 1982. What! Another minimum wage study? American Economic Review 94: 226–232.
Fleisher, B.M. 1981. Minimum wage regulation in retail trade. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Gramlich, E.M. 1976. Impact of minimum wages on other wages, employment, and family incomes. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1976 (2): 409–451.
Hashimoto, M. 1982. Minimum wage effects on training on the job. American Economic Review 72: 1070–1087.
Johnson, H.J. 1969. Minimum wage laws: A general equilibrium analysis. Canadian Journal of Economics 2: 599–604.
Kennan, J. 1995. The elusive effects of minimum wages. Journal of Economic Literature 33: 1950–1965.
Kneisner, T.J. 1981. The low-wage workers: Who are they? In Rottenberg (1981).
Leighton, L., and J. Mincer. 1981. The effects of minimum wages on human capital formation. In Rottenberg (1981).
Mattila, J. 1981. The impact of minimum wages on teenage schooling and part-time full-time employment of youths. In Rottenberg (1981).
Mincer, J. 1976. Unemployment effects of minimum wages. Journal of Political Economy 84: S87–S104.
Neumark, D., and W. Wascher. 2000. Minimum wages and employment: A case study of the fast-food industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Comment. American Economic Review 90: 1362–1396.
Parsons, D.O. 1980. Poverty and the minimum wage. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Reynolds, L.G., and P. Gregory. 1965. Wages, productivity, and industrialization in Puerto Rico. Homewood: Richard D. Irwin.
Rosa, J.J. 1981. The effects of minimum wage regulation in France. In Rottenberg (1981).
Rottenberg, S., ed. 1981. The economics of legal minimum wages. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Silberman, J., and G.C. Durden. 1978. Determining legislative preferences on the minimum wage: An economic approach. Journal of Political Economy 84: 317–329.
Stigler, G.J. 1946. The economics of minimum wage legislation. American Economic Review 36: 358–365.
Welch, F. 1974. Minimum wage legislation in the United States. Economic Inquiry 12: 285–318.
Welch, F. 1978. Minimum wages: Issues and evidence. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
Wessels, W.J. 1980. The effect of minimum wages on fringe benefits: An expanded model. Economic Inquiry 18: 293–213.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Parsons, D.O. (2018). Minimum Wages. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_967
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_967
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences