IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v88y2024ics1043951x24001998.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of monthly minimum wages on the labor market

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Zhengxiong
  • Liu, Mingwei
  • Zhang, Shiwei
  • Yin, Chenxi

Abstract

We explore the labor market impact of monthly minimum wages utilizing a model suitable for countries adopting monthly, weekly, or daily wage benchmarks. Our findings indicate that, in the absence of overtime regulations, an increase in monthly minimum wages will increase working hours and hourly wages and increase (or decrease) employment when the firm has high (or low) monopsony power. When incorporating overtime alongside its associated compensation, the implications of monthly minimum wages become contingent on the prevailing overtime premiums. We validate these assertions using microdata from China.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Zhengxiong & Liu, Mingwei & Zhang, Shiwei & Yin, Chenxi, 2024. "The effects of monthly minimum wages on the labor market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001998
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102310
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X24001998
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102310?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvia A. Allegretto & Arindrajit Dube & Michael Reich, 2011. "Do Minimum Wages Really Reduce Teen Employment? Accounting for Heterogeneity and Selectivity in State Panel Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 205-240, April.
    2. Linxiang Ye & TH Gindling & Shi Li, 2015. "Compliance with legal minimum wages and overtime pay regulations in China," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-35, December.
    3. Stephen J. Trejo, 2003. "Does the Statutory Overtime Premium Discourage Long Workweeks?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(3), pages 530-551, April.
    4. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    5. Alan Manning, 2021. "Monopsony in Labor Markets: A Review," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 3-26, January.
    6. Strobl, Eric & Walsh, Frank, 2007. "Dealing with monopsony power: Employment subsidies vs. minimum wages," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 83-89, January.
    7. Thomas R. Michl, 2000. "Can Rescheduling Explain the New Jersey Minimum Wage Studies?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(3), pages 265-276, Summer.
    8. Pia M. Orrenius & Madeline Zavodny, 2008. "The Effect of Minimum Wages on Immigrants' Employment and Earnings," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(4), pages 544-563, July.
    9. Hart,Robert A., 2004. "The Economics of Overtime Working," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521801423, November.
    10. Strobl, Eric & Walsh, Frank, 2011. "The ambiguous effect of minimum wages on hours," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 218-228, April.
    11. Jing Wang & Morley Gunderson, 2018. "Minimum wages effects on low-skilled workers in less developed regions of China," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(3), pages 455-467, June.
    12. Trejo, Stephen J, 1991. "The Effects of Overtime Pay Regulation on Worker Compensation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 719-740, September.
    13. Kinoshita, Tomio, 1987. "Working Hours and Hedonic Wages in the Market Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(6), pages 1262-1277, December.
    14. José Azar & Ioana Marinescu & Marshall Steinbaum, 2022. "Labor Market Concentration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 167-199.
    15. Jing Wang & Morley Gunderson, 2012. "Minimum wage effects on employment and wages: dif‐in‐dif estimates from eastern China," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 860-876, November.
    16. Orley C. Ashenfelter & Henry Farber & Michael R Ransom, 2010. "Labor Market Monopsony," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 203-210, April.
    17. Badaoui, Eliane & Walsh, Frank, 2022. "Productivity, non-compliance and the minimum wage," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    18. Boris Hirsch & Elke J. Jahn, 2015. "Is There Monopsonistic Discrimination against Immigrants?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(3), pages 501-528, May.
    19. ArnabK. Basu & NancyH. Chau & Ravi Kanbur, 2010. "Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 244-269, March.
    20. Chen Yeh & Claudia Macaluso & Brad Hershbein, 2022. "Monopsony in the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2099-2138, July.
    21. Tony Fang & Carl Lin, 2015. "Minimum wages and employment in China," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, December.
    22. William M. Boal & Michael R. Ransom, 1997. "Monopsony in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 86-112, March.
    23. Anna Sokolova & Todd Sorensen, 2021. "Monopsony in Labor Markets: A Meta-Analysis," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 27-55, January.
    24. Long, Cheryl & Yang, Jin, 2016. "How do firms respond to minimum wage regulation in China? Evidence from Chinese private firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 267-284.
    25. Sarosh Kuruvilla & Mingwei Liu & Chunyun Li & Wansi Chen, 2020. "Field Opacity and Practice-Outcome Decoupling: Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(4), pages 841-872, August.
    26. Hart, Robert A. & McGregor, Peter G., 1988. "The returns to labour services in West German manufacturing industry," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 947-963, April.
    27. Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1970. "Absenteeism and the Overtime Decision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 352-357, June.
    28. Alan Manning & Ted To, 2002. "Oligopsony and Monopsonistic Competition in Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 155-174, Spring.
    29. Wenkai Sun & Xianghong Wang & Xiaoxi Zhang, 2015. "Minimum wage effects on employment and working time of Chinese workers——evidence based on CHNS," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-22, December.
    30. Xue, Jinjun & Gao, Wenshu & Guo, Lin, 2014. "Informal employment and its effect on the income distribution in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 84-93.
    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. Popp, Martin, 2024. "Minimum Wages in Concentrated Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 17357, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Gibson, Matthew, 2021. "Employer Market Power in Silicon Valley," IZA Discussion Papers 14843, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Kahn, Matthew E. & Tracy, Joseph, 2024. "Monopsony in spatial equilibrium," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Zhang, Ming-ang & Lu, Shuling & Zhang, Sihan & Bai, Yanfeng, 2023. "The unintended consequence of minimum wage hikes: Evidence based on firms' pollution emission," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    6. Hau, Harald & Dautović, Ernest & Huang, Yi, 2017. "The Consumption Response to Minimum Wages: Evidence from Chinese Households," CEPR Discussion Papers 12057, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. David Berger & Kyle Herkenhoff & Simon Mongey, 2022. "Labor Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1147-1193, April.
    8. Samiul Haque & Micheal S. Delgado, 2024. "Labor market monopsony power in the manufacturing sector of four Sub‐Saharan African countries," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(3), pages 331-349, September.
    9. Luca Macedoni, 2022. "Monopsonistic competition, trade, and the profit share," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(2), pages 488-515, April.
    10. Liu, Dan & Robone, Silvana & Turati, Gilberto, 2024. "The effect of minimum wages on self-reported physical and mental health in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    11. Francesco Devicienti & Elena Grinza & Alessandro Manello & Davide Vannoni, 2025. "Employer cooperation, productivity and wages: new evidence from inter‐firm formal network agreements," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 1-41, January.
    12. Xie, Enze & Xu, Mingzhi & Yu, Miaojie, 2024. "Trade liberalization, labor market power, and misallocation across firms: Evidence from China's WTO accession," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    13. Cazzuffi, Chiara & Pereira-López, Mariana & Rosales, Irving & Soloaga, Isidro, 2023. "Monopsony Power and Labor Income Inequality in Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13044, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. José Azar & Emiliano Huet & Ioana Marinescu & Bledi Taska & Till von, 2024. "Minimum Wage Employment Effects and Labour Market Concentration," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(4), pages 1843-1883.
    15. Arindrajit Dube & Attila S. Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 32878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Phan Kim Dung, 2017. "The effects of minimum wage hikes on employment and wages in Vietnam’s micro, small, and medium enterprises," WIDER Working Paper Series 095, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Martins, Pedro S. & Melo, António, 2024. "Making their own weather? Estimating employer labour-market power and its wage effects," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    18. Tabasso, D, 2009. "Temporary Contracts and Monopsony Power in the UK Labour Market," Economics Discussion Papers 8938, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    19. Kory Kroft & Yao Luo & Magne Mogstad & Bradley Setzler, 2020. "Imperfect Competition and Rents in Labor and Product Markets: The Case of the Construction Industry," NBER Working Papers 27325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Clémence Berson, 2016. "Local labor markets and taste-based discrimination," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-21, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Monthly minimum wages; Labor market effects; Monopsony; Overtime premiums; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • 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
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    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:eee:chieco:v:88:y:2024:i:c:s1043951x24001998. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.