Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/335974 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18326
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Minimum wages are found to have an inconclusive impact on poverty. Using China's individual-level panel dataset combined with county-level minimum wages, our paper shows that minimum wages have a moderate yet sustained effect on poverty reduction. The results show a two-sided effect: higher minimum wages help pull some workers out of poverty, while simultaneously pushing others in. This dynamic of larger "pulling" effects being counterbalanced by smaller "pushing" effects explains why existing studies often find that minimum wages have a negligible or minimal impact on poverty reduction. Notably, the poverty reduction effect is most pronounced for female workers.
Subjects: 
minimum wages
poverty
China
JEL: 
I32
J3
J88
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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