The effects of official English laws on limited-English-proficient workers

Madeline Zavodny

No 98-4, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: Workers with limited English skills may suffer adverse effects in the labor market when states declare English the official language. If employers view official English laws as allowing or requiring them to adopt workplace English-only rules that lower the demand for limited-English-proficient workers, such laws may harm individuals who do not speak English very well. Using data from the 1980 and 1990 Census, I estimate whether the earnings and other labor market outcomes of workers who have limited English proficiency and live in states that adopted official English laws declined relative to other workers'. The results suggest a substantial decline in the annual earnings of men with limited English proficiency.

Keywords: Discrimination in employment; Public policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Labor Economics, July 2000

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/Documents/resea ... /wp/1998/wp9804a.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Effects of Official English Laws on Limited-English-Proficient Workers (2000)
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:fip:fedawp:98-4

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rob Sarwark ().