IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ppi/ppicwp/2004.10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Effects of Living Wage Laws: A Provisional Review

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Adams
  • David Neumark

Abstract

Nearly 100 cities and local governments in the United States have passed living wage laws since the mid-1990s. Although the central goal of living wages is to reduce poverty, they may fail to do so because of disemployment effects. We summarize and critique the existing research on the effects of living wages on wages, employment, and family income, emphasizing common findings, points of disagreement, and important questions for future research. The evidence thus far points to wage increases as well as employment losses for the least-skilled, although there is disagreement about the employment effects. On balance, there are some beneficial distributional effects. The evidence also points to efficiency wage-type effects of living wage laws that may offset some of the adverse effects on employers.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Adams & David Neumark, 2004. "The Economic Effects of Living Wage Laws: A Provisional Review," PPIC Working Papers 2004.10, Public Policy Institute of California.
    • Handle: RePEc:ppi:ppicwp:2004.10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Neumark & Mark Schweitzer & William Wascher, 2005. "The Effects of Minimum Wages on the Distribution of Family Incomes: A Nonparametric Analysis," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4), pages 867-894.
    2. David Neumark, 2004. "Living Wages: Protection for or Protection from Low-Wage Workers?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(1), pages 27-51, October.
    3. Reich, Michael & Hall, Peter & Jacobs, Ken, 2003. "Living Wage Policies at San Francisco Airport:: Impacts on Workers and Businesses," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt8km9s5m7, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 2002. "Thinking about Local Living Wage Requirements," Upjohn Working Papers 02-76, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    6. Robert Pollin & Jeannette Wicks-Lim & Mark D. Brenner, 2002. "Measuring the Impact of Living Wage Laws: A Critical Appraisal of David Neumark's How Living Wage Laws Affect Low-Wage Workers and Low-Income Families," Working Papers wp43, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    7. David Neumark & Scott Adams, 2003. "Do Living Wage Ordinances Reduce Urban Poverty?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(3).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Mastracci, Sharon H. & Persky, Joseph J., 2008. "Effects of state minimum wage increases on employment, hours, and earnings of low-wage workers in Illinois," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 38(3), pages 1-11.
    2. Paul OSTERMAN, 2008. "Improving the quality of low-wage work: The current American experience," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 147(2-3), pages 115-134, June.
    3. David Neumark, 2009. "Alternative Labor Market Policies to Increase Economic Self-Sufficiency: Mandating Higher Wages, Subsidizing Employment, and Increasing Productivity," NBER Working Papers 14807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. James Buss & Arthur Romeo, 2006. "The changing employment situation in some cities with living wage ordinances," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(3), pages 349-367.

    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. Scott Adams & David Neumark, 2005. "Living Wage Effects: New and Improved Evidence," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 19(1), pages 80-102, February.
    2. David Neumark, 2004. "Living Wages: Protection for or Protection from Low-Wage Workers?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(1), pages 27-51, October.
    3. Scott Adams & David Neumark, 2004. "When Do Living Wages Bite?," PPIC Working Papers 2004.09, Public Policy Institute of California.
    4. Jose Fernandez & Thomas Holman & John V. Pepper, 2014. "The Impact of Living-Wage Ordinances on Urban Crime," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 478-500, July.
    5. David Neumark & Matthew Thompson & Leslie Koyle, 2012. "The effects of living wage laws on low-wage workers and low-income families: What do we know now?," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-34, December.
    6. Mark D. Brenner, 2004. "The Economic Impact of Living Wage Ordinances," Working Papers wp80, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    7. David Neumark & Olena Nizalova, 2007. "Minimum Wage Effects in the Longer Run," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(2).
    8. Adams, Scott & Neumark, David, 2005. "The effects of living wage laws: Evidence from failed and derailed living wage campaigns," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 177-202, September.
    9. Lester, William T., 2009. "The Impact of Living Wage Laws on Urban Economic Development Patterns and the Local Business Climate: Evidence from California Cities," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9313w788, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    10. 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.
    11. Neumark, David & Thompson, Matthew & Brindisi, Francesco & Koyle, Leslie & Reck, Clayton, 2012. "Simulating the Economic Impacts of Living Wage Mandates Using New Public and Administrative Data: Evidence for New York City," IZA Discussion Papers 7113, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Alexandros Karakitsios & Manos Matsaganis, 2018. "Minimum Wage Effects on Poverty and Inequality," DEOS Working Papers 1801, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    13. Nikhil Datta & Stephen Machin, 2024. "Government contracting and living wages > minimum wages," CEP Discussion Papers dp2000, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Laura Argys & M. Melinda Pitts & Joseph J. Sabia, 2014. "Do Minimum Wages Really Increase Youth Drinking and Drunk Driving?," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2014-20, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    15. David Neumark & Matthew Thompson & Francesco Brindisi & Leslie Koyle & Clayton Reck, 2013. "Simulating the Economic Impacts of Living Wage Mandates Using New Public and Administrative Data," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 27(4), pages 271-283, November.
    16. Fone, Zachary S. & Sabia, Joseph J. & Cesur, Resul, 2023. "The unintended effects of minimum wage increases on crime," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    17. David Neumark & Daiji Kawaguchi, 2001. "Attrition Bias in Economic Relationships Estimated with Matched CPS Files," NBER Working Papers 8663, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. David Neumark & Matthew Thompson & Francesco Brindisi & Leslie Koyle & Clayton Reck, 2012. "Estimating the Economic Impacts of Living Wage Mandates Using Ex Ante Simulations, Longitudinal Estimates, and New Public and Administrative Data: Evidence for New York City," NBER Working Papers 18055, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    20. Iacovone, Leonardo & Ferro, Esteban & Pereira-López, Mariana & Zavacka, Veronika, 2019. "Banking crises and exports: Lessons from the past," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 192-204.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    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:ppi:ppicwp:2004.10. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ppiccus.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.