The Minimum Wage and Employment Outcomes
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Grant Type
Early Career Research Award
Description
This research will address the employment outcomes of minimum wage laws and will identify which groups of employees and which firms are most affected. Data from the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS), the state-year aggregated version of restricted-use Census data, and the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) will be used to more precisely ascertain the effects of the minimum wage on job creation, job destruction, and turnover. In particular, the effects on firms of different size and age will be examined. This is an issue of particular importance given the attention paid to small businesses and recent findings on job creation by new firms. The data in the LBD allows us to use the precise location of establishments around state lines to examine the degree to which firms are affected – a far more convincing approach than simply contiguous counties. In addition, we can follow establishments to see whether they relocate in response to changes in labor costs.
Grant Product
Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 15-233, 2015
Meer, Jonathan and Jeremy West. 2016. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics." Journal of Human Resources 51(2): 500-522. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.51.2.0414-6298R1
Meer, Jonathan and Jeremy West. 2015. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics." Research Briefs in Economic Policy 40. https://www.cato.org/publications/research-briefs-economic-policy/effects-minimum-wage-employment-dynamics