IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wrk/warwec/965.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Wage Inequality, Minimum Wage Effects and Spillovers

Author

Listed:
  • Stewart, Mark B.

    (University of warwick)

Abstract

This paper investigates possible spillover effects of the UK minimum wage. The halt in the growth in inequality in the lower half of the wage distribution (as measured by the 50:10 percentile ratio) since the mid 1990s, in contrast to the continued inequality growth in the upper half of the distribution, suggests the possibility of a minimum wage effect and spillover effects on wages above the minimum. This paper analyses individual wage changes, using both a difference-in-differences estimator and a specification involving cross-uprating comparisons, and concludes that there have not been minimum wage spillovers. Since the UK minimum wage has always been below the 10th percentile, this lack of spillovers implies that minimum wage changes have not had an effect on the 50:10 percentile ratio measure of inequality in the lower half of the wage distribution. JEL classification: J31 ; J38 ; J08.

Suggested Citation

  • Stewart, Mark B., 2011. "Wage Inequality, Minimum Wage Effects and Spillovers," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 965, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/workingpapers/2011/twerp_965.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    2. Christopher J. Flinn, 2006. "Minimum Wage Effects on Labor Market Outcomes under Search, Matching, and Endogenous Contact Rates," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 1013-1062, July.
    3. Mark B. Stewart, 2004. "The Impact of the Introduction of the U.K. Minimum Wage on the Employment Probabilities of Low-Wage Workers," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(1), pages 67-97, March.
    4. Mark B. Stewart & Joanna K. Swaffield, 2008. "The Other Margin: Do Minimum Wages Cause Working Hours Adjustments for Low‐Wage Workers?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(297), pages 148-167, February.
    5. Richard Dickens & Alan Manning, 2004. "Spikes and spill-overs: The impact of the national minimum wage on the wage distribution in a low-wage sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 95-101, March.
    6. David H. Autor & Alan Manning & Christopher L. Smith, 2016. "The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to US Wage Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 58-99, January.
    7. Stewart, Mark, 2011. "Quantile estimates of counterfactual distribution shifts and the impact of minimum wage increases on the wage distribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 958, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Helen Robinson & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2007. "Impact Of The Minimum Wage On The Incidence Of Second Job Holding In Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(4), pages 553-574, September.
    9. David S. Lee, 1999. "Wage Inequality in the United States During the 1980s: Rising Dispersion or Falling Minimum Wage?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 977-1023.
    10. Armin Falk & Ernst Fehr & Christian Zehnder, 2006. "Fairness Perceptions and Reservation Wages—the Behavioral Effects of Minimum Wage Laws," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1347-1381.
    11. Clive Dobbs, 2009. "Patterns of pay: results of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 1997 to 2008," Economic & Labour Market Review, Palgrave Macmillan;Office for National Statistics, vol. 3(3), pages 24-32, March.
    12. David Neumark & DMark Schweitzer & DaWilliam Wascher, 2004. "Minimum Wage Effects throughout the Wage Distribution," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    13. Helen Robinson & Jonathan Wadsworth, 2004. "Did The Minimum Wage Affect The Incidence Of Second Job Holding In Britain?," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2004 24, Royal Economic Society.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stewart, Mark B., 2011. "Quantile estimates of counterfactual distribution shifts and the impact of minimum wage increases on the wage distribution," Economic Research Papers 270766, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    2. Caliendo Marco & Wittbrodt Linda & Schröder Carsten, 2019. "The Causal Effects of the Minimum Wage Introduction in Germany – An Overview," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 257-292, August.
    3. Brochu, Pierre & Green, David A. & Lemieux, Thomas & Townsend, James, 2023. "The Minimum Wage, Turnover, and the Shape of the Wage Distribution," IZA Discussion Papers 16514, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Romain Aeberhardt & Pauline Givord & Claire Marbot, 2016. "Spillover effect of the Minimum Wage in France: An UnconditionalQuantile Regression," Working Papers 2016-05, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    5. Marco Caliendo & Alexandra Fedorets & Malte Preuss & Carsten Schröder & Linda Wittbrodt, 2023. "The short- and medium-term distributional effects of the German minimum wage reform," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 1149-1175, March.
    6. Brian Bell & Stephen Machin, 2018. "Minimum Wages and Firm Value," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(1), pages 159-195.
    7. Backhaus, Teresa & Müller, Kai-Uwe, 2019. "Does the German minimum wage benefit low income households?," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203585, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Rafael Lopes de Melo, 2012. "Firm Heterogeneity, Sorting and the Minimum Wage," 2012 Meeting Papers 611, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Duanmu, Jing-Lin & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Lu, Jane Wenzhen & Clegg, Jeremy, 2022. "Contraction under minimum wages? Operational and financial advantages of multinational subsidiaries in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2).
    10. Teresa Backhaus & Kai-Uwe Müller, 2019. "Does the German Minimum Wage Help Low Income Households?: Evidence from Observed Outcomes and the Simulation of Potential Effects," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1805, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Laws, A., 2018. "Do minimum wages increase search effort?," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1857, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. E. Gautier & D. Fougère & S. Roux, 2016. "The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Industry-Level Wage Bargaining in France," Working papers 587, Banque de France.
    13. Bai, Xue & Chatterjee, Arpita & Krishna, Kala & Ma, Hong, 2021. "Trade and minimum wages in general equilibrium: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    14. Gregory, Terry & Zierahn, Ulrich, 2022. "When the minimum wage really bites hard: The negative spillover effect on high-skilled workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    15. Pestel, Nico & Bonin, Holger & Isphording, Ingo E. & Gregory, Terry & Caliendo, Marco, 2020. "Auswirkungen des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns auf Beschäftigung und Arbeitslosigkeit," IZA Research Reports 95, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3mjt8d63i195voq228mf1sr91q is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Richard Dickens & Alan Manning & Tim Butcher, 2012. "Minimum Wages and Wage Inequality: Some Theory and an Application to the UK," Working Paper Series 4512, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    18. Niklas Engbom & Christian Moser, 2022. "Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(12), pages 3803-3847, December.
    19. Terry Gregory & Ulrich Zierahn, 2020. "When the Minimum Wage Really Bites Hard: Impact on Top Earners and Skill Supply," CESifo Working Paper Series 8540, CESifo.
    20. Cengiz, Doruk & Dube, Arindrajit & Lindner, Attila & Zipperer, Ben, 2018. "The effect of minimum wages on low-wage jobs: evidence from the United States using a bunching estimator," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88682, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    21. Zhao, Naibao & Sun, Meng, 2021. "Effects of minimum wage on workers’ on-the-job effort and labor market outcomes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 453-461.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:965. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Margaret Nash (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewaruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.