Minimum wages / David Neumark and William L. Wascher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neumark, David.

Contributor:

Wascher, William L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Minimum wage--United States.

Minimum wage.

Income distribution--United States.

Income distribution.

Labor supply--United States.

Labor supply.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (388 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This is a comprehensive review of evidence on the effect of minimum wages on employment, skills, wage and income distributions, and longer-term labour market outcomes, and concludes that the minimum wage is not a good policy tool.

Minimum wages exist in more than one hundred countries, both industrialized and developing. The United States passed a federal minimum wage law in 1938 and has increased the minimum wage and its coverage at irregular intervals ever since; in addition, as of the beginning of 2008, thirty-two states and the District of Columbia had established a minimum wage higher than the federal level, and numerous other local jurisdictions had in place "living wage" laws. Over the years, the minimum wage has been popular with the public, controversial in the political arena, and the subject of vigorous debate among economists over its costs and benefits. In this book, David Neumark and William Wascher offer a comprehensive overview of the evidence on the economic effects of minimum wages. Synthesizing nearly two decades of their own research and reviewing other research that touches on the same questions, Neumark and Wascher discuss the effects of minimum wages on employment and hours, the acquisition of skills, the wage and income distributions, longer-term labor market outcomes, prices, and the aggregate economy. Arguing that the usual focus on employment effects is too limiting, they present a broader, empirically based inquiry that will better inform policymakers about the costs and benefits of the minimum wage. Based on their comprehensive reading of the evidence, Neumark and Wascher argue that minimum wages do not achieve the main goals set forth by their supporters. They reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers and tend to reduce their earnings; they are not an effective means of reducing poverty; and they appear to have adverse longer-term effects on wages and earnings, in part by reducing the acquisition of human capital. The authors argue that policymakers should instead look for other tools to raise the wages of low-skill workers and to provide poor families with an acceptable standard of living.

Contents:

Introduction

The history of the minimum wage in the United States

The effects of minimum wages on employment

Minimum wage effects on the distribution of wages and earnings

The effects of minimum wages on the distribution of incomes

The effects of minimum wages on skills

The effects of minimum wages on prices and profits

The political economy of minimum wages

Summary and conclusions.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [335]-357) and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9780262292177

0262292173

9780262280563

0262280566

9781435691841

1435691849

OCLC:

310354911