U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison

Orley Ashenfelter and Štěpán Jurajda
Additional contact information
Štěpán Jurajda: CERGE-EI

Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.

Abstract: Thanks to standardized work protocol and technology of McDonald’s restaurants, the hourly wage of McDonald’s Basic Crew enables wage comparisons under near-identical skill inputs and hedonic job conditions. McWages capture labor costs in entry-level jobs, while the Big Macs (earned) Per Hour (BMPH) index measures corresponding purchasing power of wages. We document large and growing geographical wage differences in standardized jobs using data covering most U.S. counties during 2016-2023. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no BMPH growth where minimum wages stayed constant, but the pandemic wage increase, which diminished the importance of minimum wages, was stronger in these areas.

JEL-codes: J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://irs.princeton.edu/publications/working-papers/658

Related works:
Working Paper: The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison (2024)
Working Paper: The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison (2024)
Working Paper: The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison (2024)
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:pri:indrel:658

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().