Minimum wage: motor for growth or brake on the economy?
Members' Research Service
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Vol. 30, Issue 3, pp. 14-17.
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Endnotes
1
On the diverging views on minimum wages and economic theory, see N. Gregory Mankiw, Macroeconomics,
Worth Publishers, New York, 2010, particularly the chapter on unemployment.
2
The Minimum Wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of Effects on the Employment and Income Trajectories of
Low-Skilled Workers, J. Clemens and M. Wither, CATO Institute, Research Briefs in Economic Policy, Number 22,
March 2015.
3
Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment?, J. Schmitt, Center for Economic and
Policy Research, February 2013.
4
On the arguments pro and contra, see OECD paper Minimum wages after the crisis: Making them pay, and
Maximum Divide on Minimum Wage by J. Mejeur, and Employment effects of minimum wages by D. Neumark.
5
H. Doucouliagos and T. D. Stanley, Publication Selection Bias in Minimum-Wage Research? A Meta-Regression
Analysis, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, Issue 2, June 2009, pp. 406-428.
6
OECD Employment Outlook 2015 report, p. 21.
7
Employment elasticity describes the ratio of the percentage change in employment to the percentage change in
the MW. For example, an elasticity of −0.17 means that a 10% increase in the MW would reduce employment (of
the affected group) by 1.7%.
8
Employment effects of minimum wages, by D. Neumark.
9
D. Neumark and W. Wascher, Minimum Wages, Cambridge/MA, MIT Press, 2008.
10
On the diverging European MW systems, see S. Kampelmann et al., 'Minimum wages in Europe: does the diversity
of systems lead to a diversity of outcomes?', European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Report 128, Brussels, 2013.
11
OECD 2015, op. cit., p. 38.
12
OECD 2015, op. cit., p. 34.
13
OECD 2015, op. cit., p. 21.
14
The so-called Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chair of the Senate
Labor Committee, and Representative George Miller (D-CA), Member of the House Workforce Committee. It
foresees an increase of the MW in three steps (by 95 cents each year) from US$7.25 to US$10.10.
15
OECD 2015, op. cit., p. 49.
16
OECD 2015, op. cit., p. 50; T. Schulten, WSI-Mindestlohnbericht 2015 – Ende der Lohnzurückhaltung, WSI-
Mitteilungen 2/2015, pp. 133-140.
17
UEAPME, Business Europe and CEEP, Employers’ views on European Commission initiative on the long-term
unemployed, Brussels, 8 May 2015.
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