The Economics of Gender-Specific Minimum Wage Legislation

Riccardo Marchingiglio (riccardo.marchingiglio@u.northwestern.edu) and Mikhail Poyker (mikhail.poyker@austin.utexas.edu)
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Riccardo Marchingiglio: Northwestern University
Mikhail Poyker: University of Texas at Austin

No 17016, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using full count U.S. census data, we study the impact of early 20th-century state-industry-specific minimum wage laws that primarily targeted female employees. Our triple-difference estimates suggest a null impact of the minimum wage laws, potentially reflecting disemployment effects and the positive selection bias of the workers remaining in the labor force. When comparing county-industry trends between counties straddling state borders, female employment is lower by around 3.1% in affected county-industry cells. We further investigate the implications for own-wage elasticity of labor demand as a function of cross-industry concentration, the channels of substitution between men and women, and heterogeneity by marital status.

Keywords: gender gap; labor demand; minimum wage; labor markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J23 N32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 79 pages
Date: 2024-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen, nep-his and nep-lma
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Forthcoming - forthcoming in: Journal of Labor Economics

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