The Effects of Living Wage Laws: Evidence from Failed and Derailed Living Wage Campaigns

No 1566, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: Living wage campaigns have succeeded in about 100 jurisdictions in the United States but have also been unsuccessful in numerous cities. These unsuccessful campaigns provide a better control group or counterfactual for estimating the effects of living wage laws than the broader set of all cities without a law, and also permit the separate estimation of the effects of living wage laws and living wage campaigns. We find that living wage laws raise wages of low-wage workers but reduce employment among the least-skilled, especially when the laws cover business assistance recipients or are accompanied by similar laws in nearby cities.

Keywords: living wages; wages; employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J28 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Date: Written 2005-04
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Effects of Living Wage Laws: Evidence from Failed and Derailed Living Wage Campaigns (2005)
Journal Article: The effects of living wage laws: Evidence from failed and derailed living wage campaigns (2005)
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