Abstract There is robust evidence that higher minimum wages increase family incomes at the bottom of the distribution. The long-run (3 or more years) minimum wage elasticity of the non-elderly poverty rate with respect to the minimum wage ranges between −0.220 and −0.459 across alternative specifications. The long-run minimum wage elasticities for the tenth and fifteenth unconditional quantiles of family income range between 0.152 and 0.430 depending on specification. A reduction in public assistance partly offsets these income gains, which are on average 66 percent as large when using an expanded income definition including tax credits and noncash transfers.
Citation Dube, Arindrajit. 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , 11 (4): 268-304 . DOI: 10.1257/app.20170085 Choose Format: BibTeX EndNote Refer/BibIX RIS Tab-Delimited
f3nnies on September 27th, 2019 at 19:42 UTC »
"By allowing poor people to make more money, we have provided poor people with more money in exchange for work."
UncleBenji on September 27th, 2019 at 16:30 UTC »
Seems repetitive as anyone making minimum wage is already the bottom of the distribution. So yes, them making more money means they make more money...?
Yodan on September 27th, 2019 at 15:42 UTC »
I don't mean to be rude but isn't that exactly what MINIMUM wage is? The bottom of the distribution?