IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v41y2003i3p435-456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of the National Minimum Wage in Small Firms

Author

Listed:
  • James Arrowsmith
  • Mark W. Gilman
  • Paul Edwards
  • Monder Ram

Abstract

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms, this paper examines the impact of the NMW in small firms in clothing manufacture and hotel and catering. Different patterns of adjustment were observed, explained by both size and sector characteristics. Overall, the impact of the NMW was mediated by the informality of employment relations in the small firm.

Suggested Citation

  • James Arrowsmith & Mark W. Gilman & Paul Edwards & Monder Ram, 2003. "The Impact of the National Minimum Wage in Small Firms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(3), pages 435-456, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:41:y:2003:i:3:p:435-456
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8543.00281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00281
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-8543.00281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Williamson & Gary Lynch-Wood & John Ramsay, 2006. "Drivers of Environmental Behaviour in Manufacturing SMEs and the Implications for CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 317-330, September.
    2. Mahesh Somashekhar & James Buszkiewicz & Scott W. Allard & Jennifer Romich, 2022. "How Do Employers Belonging to Marginalized Communities Respond to Minimum Wage Increases? The Case of Immigrant-Owned Businesses in Seattle," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 36(2), pages 108-123, May.
    3. Barry T. Hirsch & Bruce E. Kaufman & Tetyana Zelenska, 2015. "Minimum Wage Channels of Adjustment," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 199-239, April.
    4. Robert Wapshott & Oliver Mallett, 2018. "Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 750-772, June.
    5. Colin. C. Williams, 2008. "Illegitimate wage practices in Eastern Europe: - The case of 'envelope wages'," Journal of East European Management Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 13(3), pages 253-270.
    6. J. Shackleton, 2007. "Britain’s Labor Market Under the Blair Governments," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 454-476, July.
    7. Colm McLaughlin, 2009. "The Productivity‐Enhancing Impacts of the Minimum Wage: Lessons from Denmark and New Zealand," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(2), pages 327-348, June.
    8. Trevor Jones & Monder Ram, 2007. "Re-embedding the ethnic business agenda," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(3), pages 439-457, September.
    9. Colm McLaughlin, 2007. "The productivity enhancing Impacts of the Minimum Wage: Lessons from Denmark, New Zealand and Ireland," Working Papers wp342, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    10. Monder Ram & Kassa Woldesenbet & Trevor Jones, 2011. "Raising the ‘table stakes’? Ethnic minority businesses and supply chain relationships," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 25(2), pages 309-326, June.
    11. George Saridakis & Sukanya Sen‐Gupta & Paul Edwards & David J. Storey, 2008. "The Impact of Enterprise Size on Employment Tribunal Incidence and Outcomes: Evidence from Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(3), pages 469-499, September.
    12. Monder Ram & Paul Edwards, 2003. "Praising Caesar Not Burying Him: What We Know about Employment Relations in Small Firms," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 17(4), pages 719-730, December.
    13. Alessandra Brito & Miguel Foguel & Celia Kerstenetzky, 2017. "The contribution of minimum wage valorization policy to the decline in household income inequality in Brazil: A decomposition approach," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 540-575, October.
    14. Monder Ram & Trevor Jones, 2008. "Ethnic-Minority Businesses in the UK: A Review of Research and Policy Developments," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(2), pages 352-374, April.
    15. Eva Lajtkepová, 2010. "Minimum Wage and Labour Market [Minimální mzda a trh práce]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2010(1), pages 3-20.

    More about this item

    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:bla:brjirl:v:41:y:2003:i:3:p:435-456. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.