Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69323 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7114
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We provide updated evidence on the effects of living wage laws in U.S. cities, relative to the earlier research covering only the first six or seven years of existence of these laws. There are some challenges to updating the evidence, as the CPS data on which it relies changed geographic coding systems in the mid-2000s. The updated evidence is broadly consistent with the conclusions reached by prior research, including Holzer's (2008) review of that earlier evidence. Living wage laws reduce employment among the least-skilled workers they are intended to help. But they also increase wages for many of them. This implies that living wage laws generate both winners and losers among those affected by them. For broader living wage laws that cover recipients of business or financial assistance from cities, the net effects point to modest reductions in urban poverty.
Subjects: 
living wage
wages
employment
poverty
JEL: 
J23
J38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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