The Impact of a Minimum Wage Change on the Distribution of Wages and Household Income

Paul Redmond, Karina Doorley and Seamus McGuinness

No 12914, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use distributional regression analysis to study the impact of a six percent increase in the Irish minimum wage on the distribution of hourly wages and household income. Wage inequality, measured by the ratio of wages in the 90th and 10th percentiles and the 75th and 25th percentiles, decreased by approximately eight percent and four percent respectively. For young workers, aged under 25, the effects were far greater, with a 24 percent reduction in the ratio of wages in the 90th and 10th percentiles. The results point towards wage spillover effects up to the 30th percentile of the wage distribution. We show that minimum wage workers are spread throughout the household income distribution and are often located in high-income households. Therefore, while we observe strong effects on the wage distribution, the impact of a minimum wage increase on the household income distribution is quite limited.

Keywords: distributional regression; minimum wage; inequality; wage spillovers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J38 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-law and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Oxford Economic Papers , 2021, 73 (3),1034 - 1056

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Journal Article: The impact of a minimum wage change on the distribution of wages and household income (2021)
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