Minimum Wages and Employment

'via Blog this'

link
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~dneumark/min_wage_review.pdf
Abstract
We review the burgeoning literature on the employment effects of minimum wages – in the United States and in other countries – that was
spurred by the new minimum wage research beginning in the early
1990s. Our review indicates that there is a wide range of existing estimates and, accordingly, a lack of consensus about the overall effects
on low-wage employment of an increase in the minimum wage. However, the oft-stated assertion that recent research fails to support the
conclusion that the minimum wage reduces employment of low-skilled
workers is clearly incorrect. A sizable majority of the studies surveyed
in this monograph give a relatively consistent (although not always
statistically significant) indication of negative employment effects of
minimum wages. In addition, among the papers we view as providing
the most credible evidence, almost all point to negative employment
effects, both for the United States as well as for many other countries.
Two other important conclusions emerge from our review. First, we
see very few – if any – studies that provide convincing evidence of
positive employment effects of minimum wages, especially from those