People versus Machines in the UK: Minimum Wages, Labor Reallocation and Automatable Jobs

Grace Lordan

No 12716, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study follows the Lordan and Neumark (2018) analysis for the US, and examines whether minimum wage increases affect employment opportunities in automatable jobs in the UK for low-skilled low-wage workers. Overall, I find that increasing the minimum wage decreases the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled low-wage workers, and increases the likelihood that workers in automatable jobs become disemployed. On aggregate the effect size is modest, but I also provide evidence that these effects are larger in more recent years. The study also highlights significant heterogeneity by industry and demographic group, including more substantive adverse effects for older low-skilled workers in manufacturing, as well as effects at the intensive margin.

Keywords: employment; unemployment; automation; robotics; technology; minimum wage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: PLoS, 2019, 14 (12), e0224789

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Journal Article: People versus machines in the UK: Minimum wages, labor reallocation and automatable jobs (2019)
Working Paper: People versus machines in the UK: minimum wages, labor reallocation and automatable jobs (2019)
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