.
Living wage laws : How much do (can) they matter ?
H. J. Holzer,
Institute
for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Iza discussion paper, n° 3781, October,
40 p., (2008).
Résumé - Summary
:
In this paper I review what we have learned about living
wage laws and their impacts on the wages, employment and poverty rates of
low-wage workers. I review the characteristics of these laws and where they have
been implemented to date, and what economic theory tells us about their likely
effects in more and less competitive labor markets. I then review two bodies of
empirical evidence: 1) Studies across cities or metropolitan areas that have and
have not implemented these laws, using data from the Current Population Survey
pooled over many years; and 2) Studies within particular cities, based on
comparisons of covered and uncovered workers before and after the laws are
passed. I conclude that living wage laws have modestly raised wage levels of low
wage workers and have reduced their employment at covered firms, but that the
magnitudes of both effects are likely quite small, given how few workers are
usually covered by these ordinances.