IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ajy/icddwp/35.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The rational of minimum wages

Author

Listed:
  • Hansjörg Herr

Abstract

Leaving labour markets to the market mechanism with flexible wages is the worst thing that can happen as the result would be a permanent destabilisation of the price level and an explosion of inequality—both of which adds to the instabilities of capitalism. Guarantee of minimum wages can play an important role to contain the destabilising potential of labour markets. They can add to the stability of price level development and help establish a type of wage dispersion preferred by society. Minimum wages do not lead to unemployment. Countries with very high wage dispersion can have high unemployment while those with low wage dispersion might ensure full employment. Looking at the distribution effect, minimum wage increases (which compress the wage structure from below) not only lead to redistribution within wage earners, but also can increase wage shares. Minimum wage policy should play an important and active role in macroeconomic management of an economy which in turn is linked with macroeconomic demand management so that the employment rate is maintained high.

Suggested Citation

  • Hansjörg Herr, 2021. "The rational of minimum wages," ICDD Working Papers 35, University of Kassel, Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften (Social Sciences), Internatioanl Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD).
    • Handle: RePEc:ajy:icddwp:35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://kobra.uni-kassel.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/12651/ICDD_WP35_Herr.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y
    File Function: First version, 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arindrajit Dube, 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 268-304, October.
    2. Dinkelman, Taryn & Ranchhod, Vimal, 2012. "Evidence on the impact of minimum wage laws in an informal sector: Domestic workers in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 27-45.
    3. Mr. Jonathan David Ostry & Mr. Andrew Berg & Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides, 2014. "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2014/002, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Hansjörg Herr, 2009. "The labour market in a Keynesian economic regime: theoretical debate and empirical findings," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 33(5), pages 949-965, September.
    5. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Jonathan David Ostry & Andrew Berg & Charalambos G Tsangarides, 2014. "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 14/02, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Alexander Herzog-Stein & Camille Logeay & Patrick Nüß & Ulrike Stein & Rudolf Zwiener, 2018. "The positive economic impact of Germany’s statutory minimum wage – an econometric analysis," IMK Report 141e-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    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. Pablo Blanchard & Paula Carrasco & Rodrigo Ceni & Cecilia Parada & Sofía Santín, 2021. "Distributive and displacement effects of a coordinated wage bargaining scheme," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-26, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    2. Hansjörg Herr & Bea Ruoff, 2018. "Insufficient Economic Convergence in the World Economy: How Do Economists Explain Why Too Many Countries Do Not Catch-up?," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, April.
    3. Kate PHILIP, 2025. "Public Employment Programmes in South Africa’s Changing Social Protection Landscape," Working Paper a81a7ff1-ce8b-4803-b5ad-7, Agence française de développement.
    4. Markus Brueckner & Daniel Lederman, 2018. "Inequality and economic growth: the role of initial income," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 341-366, September.
    5. Mohamed Ali Trabelsi & Salah Ahmed, 2021. "Economic Resilience in Developing Countries: The Role of Democracy in the Face of External Shocks," Working Papers 1499, Economic Research Forum, revised 20 Oct 2021.
    6. Ville-Veikko Pulkka, 2017. "A free lunch with robots – can a basic income stabilise the digital economy?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 23(3), pages 295-311, August.
    7. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/gmkj8k1vf8tpbdue5q2emsepp is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Stefan Bach, 2014. ""Reichensteuer"-Diskussion: Hintergrund und Perspektiven," DIW Roundup: Politik im Fokus 16, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Francesco Savoia & Ioannis Bournakis & Mona Said & Antonio Savoia, 2024. "Regional income inequality in Egypt: evolution and implications for Sustainable Development Goal 10," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 17-33, January.
    10. Caruso Raul & Antonella Biscione, 2022. "Militarization and Income Inequality in European Countries (2000–2017)," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 28(3), pages 267-285, September.
    11. Pedro R. D. Bom & Aitor Goti, 2018. "Public Capital and the Labor Income Share," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, October.
    12. Mr. Raphael A Espinoza & Mrs. Esther Perez Ruiz, 2014. "Labor Tax Cuts and Employment: A General Equilibrium Approach for France," IMF Working Papers 2014/114, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Ines A. Ferreira & Rachel M. Gisselquist & Finn Tarp, 2021. "On the impact of inequality on growth, human development, and governance," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-34, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Kang, Jong Woo, 2015. "Interrelation between Growth and Inequality," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 447, Asian Development Bank.
    15. European Commission, 2018. "Tax Policies in the European Union: 2018 Survey," Taxation Survey 2018, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    16. Svilena MIHAYLOVA, 2015. "Foreign direct investment and income inequality in Central and Eastern Europe," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(603), S), pages 23-42, Summer.
    17. Gheorghe Savoiu & Vasile Dinu, 2015. "Economic paradoxism and meson economics," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(39), pages 776-776, May.
    18. Olimpia Neagu, 2020. "Does Globalisation Promote Sustainable Development and an Equal Distribution of Income around the World? An Econometric and Ethical View," Book chapters-LUMEN Proceedings, in: Adriana Grigorescu & Valentin Radu (ed.), 1st International Conference Global Ethics - Key of Sustainability (GEKoS), edition 1, volume 11, chapter 7, pages 56-64, Editura Lumen.
    19. Patrizio Pagano & Massimo Sbracia, 2014. "The secular stagnation hypothesis: a review of the debate and some insights," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 231, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Eva Militaru & Madalina Ecaterina Popescu & Amalia Cristescu & Maria Denisa Vasilescu, 2019. "Assessing Minimum Wage Policy Implications upon Income Inequalities. The Case of Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, May.
    21. Najeh Aissaoui, 2017. "Is Inequality Harmful for Broadband Diffusion and Economic Growth?," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 7(8), pages 799-808, August.

    More about this item

    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:ajy:icddwp:35. 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: Webadmin The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Webadmin to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ickasde.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.