Does the Minimum Wage Drive Teenagers Out of the Labor Force?

Walter Wessels

Journal of Labor Research, 2005, vol. 26, issue 1, 169-176

Abstract: Labor force participation is directly related to the value of being in the labor force. The effect of the minimum wage on labor force participation thus measures how the minimum wage affects the welfare of labor force participants. In contrast, a decline in employment tells us little about welfare, because of the offsetting wage increase. Only changes in labor force participation can directly measure the welfare effects of the minimum wage. Despite this, most literature about the minimum wage has been focused on employment. My empirical results show that the minimum wage has a significant negative effect on teenage labor force participation. Thus, a minimum wage reduces the value of entering the labor market.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://transactionpub.metapress.com/link.asp?targe ... &id=LCNTR2N41BJYJ126 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tra:jlabre:v:26:y:2005:i:1:p:169-176

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Research from Transaction Publishers
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().