The Effects of Minimum Wage Increases on Poverty and Food Hardship

Lukas Lehner, Hannah Massenbauer, Zachary Parolin () and Rafael Pintro Schmitt ()
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Hannah Massenbauer: University of Zurich
Zachary Parolin: The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
Rafael Pintro Schmitt: University of California, Berkeley

INET Oxford Working Papers from Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Abstract: We study the effects of minimum wage (MW) increases on poverty and food hardship in the United States from 1981–2019 using stacked difference-in-differences models and the Supplemental Poverty Measure. A $1 MW increase reduces poverty by 0.3–0.7 percentage points among all working-age adults and 1.2–1.7 percentage points among likely MW workers, while also reducing food insufficiency by 1.5 percentage points for this group. Effects on poverty are partially offset by higher living costs in MW-increasing states. MW increases meaningfully reduce poverty and food hardship for the workers most directly affected but deliver modest improvements for the broader working-age population.

Keywords: minimum wages; poverty; food hardship; stacked difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 I38 J23 J38 J88 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 78 pages
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-inv and nep-lma
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Working Paper: The Effects of Minimum Wage Increases on Poverty and Food Hardship (2025)
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