Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35422 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3781
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
living wages
JEL: 
J38
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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