IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v31y2024i16p1453-1461.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do higher minimum wages decrease union membership in minimum-wage-intensive industries?

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Clemens
  • Michael R. Strain

Abstract

Over the past decade, organized labour has played a significant role in advocating for minimum wage increases. In this paper, we investigate the effects of minimum wage increases on union membership among individuals in minimum wage intensive industries. We find no evidence of a change in union membership among high-skilled workers in these industries. Consistent with a ‘free-riding’ hypothesis, we find evidence that minimum wage increases predict declines in union membership among low-skilled workers in these industries. These workers are the minimum wage’s most direct beneficiaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Clemens & Michael R. Strain, 2024. "Do higher minimum wages decrease union membership in minimum-wage-intensive industries?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(16), pages 1453-1461, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:31:y:2024:i:16:p:1453-1461
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2023.2188162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2023.2188162
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504851.2023.2188162?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.

    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:taf:apeclt:v:31:y:2024:i:16:p:1453-1461. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    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.