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Minimum Wage (minimum + wage)
Kinds of Minimum Wage Selected AbstractsMINIMUM WAGE: THE DOG THAT IS ABOUT TO BARKECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2009John Meadowcroft No abstract is available for this article. [source] Pay determination in small firms in the UK: the case of the response to the National Minimum WageINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2002Mark Gilman Pay determination in small firms is widely expected to follow the dictates of the market. Research on 81 firms in three competitive sectors finds, instead, loosely defined and variable pay structures. This variability is explained in terms of the interplay between labour and product markets, firms' own choices, and ,shocks' such as the National Minimum Wage. This analysis thus contributes to developing institutional theories of labour markets and pay systems. [source] Employer strategies in the face of a national minimum wage: an analysis of the hotel sectorINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000Donna Brown The introduction of the National Minimum Wage provides an opportunity to examine whether hotel managers act strategically. Most of our sample are affected by this wage floor, and their managers have selected clear response strategies. The majority, 55 per cent, planned to adopt cost minimisation techniques and one third the quality enhancement route. [source] Evaluating the Introduction of a National Minimum Wage: Evidence from a New Survey of Firms in IrelandLABOUR, Issue 1 2006Donal O'Neill We use data from a specifically designed survey of firms to estimate the employment effects of this change. Employment growth among firms with low-wage workers prior to the legislation was no different from that of firms not affected by the legislation. A more refined measure of the minimum wage, however, suggests that the legislation may have had a negative effect on employment for the small number of firms most severely affected by the legislation. However, the size of these effects is relatively modest. [source] The Intriguing Relation Between Adult Minimum Wage and Child LabourTHE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 462 2000Kaushik Basu Because most parents send their children to work when compelled by poverty, one would expect a rise in adult wage to lower child labour. However, if the rise in wage is achieved by a minimum wage law, its impact can be intriguing. It can, for instance, cause some adults to be unemployed and send their children to work, which in turn displaces more adult labour and sends more children to work. The paper solves this process and predicts the incidence of child labour. It shows that, for appropriate parametric configurations, child labour may fall or rise as the adult minimum wage is raised. [source] The Process of Fixing the British National Minimum Wage, 1997,2007BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2009William Brown The British National Minimum Wage was introduced in 1999 under the guidance of a Low Pay Commission constructed on a basis of ,social partnership'. The article analyses its conduct over its first 10 years from diary data. Key challenges were for it to be independent of government, to have its advice accepted by government and to maintain internal unanimity. The changing internal dynamics of the Commission, and its major negotiations over the level of the minimum wage, are described and analysed. Conclusions are drawn for the social partnership process. [source] The Impact of the National Minimum Wage in Small FirmsBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 3 2003James Arrowsmith The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms, this paper examines the impact of the NMW in small firms in clothing manufacture and hotel and catering. Different patterns of adjustment were observed, explained by both size and sector characteristics. Overall, the impact of the NMW was mediated by the informality of employment relations in the small firm. [source] Do Higher Real Minimum Wages Lead to More High School Dropouts?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Evidence from Maryland Across Races We explore whether higher levels of the real minimum wage have differing effects on high school dropout rates across students of various races and ethnicities (whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians). Using a panel of data across Maryland counties and annual observations in 1993,2004, we found higher real minimum wages to be associated with higher dropout rates for Hispanic students, but not for other races and ethnicities. We used a variety of model specifications and explanatory variables, including real income, the unemployment rate, teen pregnancy rates, and educational attainment among adults. Several of our findings are broadly consistent with commonly reported sociological observations regarding how behavioral choices may be affected by different levels across races and ethnicities of cultural integration of recent immigrants, family cohesiveness, the value placed on education, small business ownership, and hourly (vs. salaried) employment. [source] EMPLOYMENT EFFECTS OF TWO NORTHWEST MINIMUM WAGE INITIATIVESECONOMIC INQUIRY, Issue 1 2007LARRY D. SINGELL Jr This article exploits a natural experiment initiated by Oregon and Washington voter referendums to show that the minimum wage is a blunt instrument that differentially affects low-wage workers within and across industries. Specifically, employment growth specifications indicate that the minimum wage generates consistently negative employment effects for eating and drinking workers where the minimum is shown to be relatively binding, but not for hotel and lodging workers where the minimum is less binding. Regressions using job-specific want-ad data from Portland and Seattle newspapers also indicate a reduction in hiring solicitation relating to the extent that the minimum wage binds. (JEL J31, J38) [source] Did the National Minimum Wage Affect UK Prices?,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2010Jonathan Wadsworth J0; J3; D4 Abstract One potential channel through which the effects of the minimum wage could be directed is that firms that employ minimum-wage workers could have passed on any higher labour costs resulting from the minimum wage in the form of higher prices. This study looks at the effects of the minimum wage on the prices of UK goods and services by comparing prices of goods and services produced by industries in which UK minimum-wage workers make up a substantial share of total costs with prices of goods and services that make less use of minimum-wage labour. Using sectoral-level price data matched to Labour Force Survey data on the share of minimum-wage workers in each sector, it is hard to find much evidence of significant price changes in the months that correspond immediately to the uprating of the national minimum wage. However, over the longer term, prices in several minimum-wage sectors , notably, take-away food, canteen meals, hotel services and domestic services , do appear to have risen significantly faster than prices in non-minimum-wage sectors. These effects were particularly significant in the four years immediately after the introduction of the minimum wage. [source] Using SimBritain to Model the Geographical Impact of National Government PoliciesGEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 1 2007Dimitris Ballas In this article, we use a dynamic spatial microsimulation model of Britain for the analysis of the geographical impact of policies that have been implemented in Britain in the last 10 years. In particular, we show how spatial microsimulation can be used to estimate the geographical and socio-economic impact of the following policy developments: introduction of the minimum wage, winter fuel payments, working families tax credits, and new child and working credits. This analysis is carried out with the use of the SimBritain model, which is a product of a 3-year research project aimed at dynamically simulating urban and regional populations in Britain. SimBritain projections are based on a method that uses small area data from past Censuses of the British population in order to estimate small-area data for 2001, 2011, and 2021. [source] The impact of the national minimum wage on the apparel industryINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2002Roger Undy This analysis of the NMW's initial impact in the apparel industry focuses on organisational and institutional factors in explaining the effects on pay and related issues. The NMW had a marked effect on national terms and conditions, in particular raising the minimum earnings level. At the local level, it impacted directly on the pay of a small number of employees in almost half the 42 organisations surveyed in the East Midlands and Northern Ireland. These tended to be the larger employing units facing foreign competition and selling into the domestic market. Also, in some workplaces, the NMW adversely affected the piecework system. The reaction of local management to these changes is discussed. [source] Employer strategies in the face of a national minimum wage: an analysis of the hotel sectorINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000Donna Brown The introduction of the National Minimum Wage provides an opportunity to examine whether hotel managers act strategically. Most of our sample are affected by this wage floor, and their managers have selected clear response strategies. The majority, 55 per cent, planned to adopt cost minimisation techniques and one third the quality enhancement route. [source] Low-wage work in five European countries and the United StatesINTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 4 2009Gerhard BOSCH Abstract. Analysing research findings on Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, the author shows that the incidence and conditions of low-paid employment in each country are determined by a set of institutions, including minimum wage and active labour market policies, tax and social security systems, and collective bargaining. The widely assumed trade-off between employment and wages, he argues, is not inescapable: active labour market policies for individual empowerment and institutions imposing "beneficial constraints" can prevent improved conditions at the bottom of the earnings distribution from translating into higher unemployment, while also helping to narrow inequalities. [source] The French food-processing model: High relative wages and high work intensityINTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 4 2009Ève CAROLI Abstract. The authors examine wages and working conditions in meat processing and confectionery in France. Working there may not require much skill, or command good wages and working conditions, but this article reveals a more complex, positive situation than expected, thanks to the "French model's" national minimum wage and the extension of collective wage agreements to all workers in the sector. But pressures to lower labour costs are still felt, and the firms examined must meet pressures to increase productivity, flexibility and automation. Moreover, retail chains also seek to lower prices and impose just-in-time production. [source] Fixing minimum wage levels in developing countries: Common failures and remediesINTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Catherine SAGET Abstract. Some developing countries have set their minimum wages too high or too low to constitute a meaningful constraint on employers. The article compares minimum wages worldwide, proposes several ways of measuring them in developing countries and discusses whether they are effective thresholds in those countries. The second part of the article considers the institutional factors leading countries to set minimum wages at extreme levels. The author concludes that the minimum wage is used as a policy instrument to several ends , wage negotiation, deflation and social dialogue , which results in the absence of a wage floor, weak collective bargaining, or non-compliance. [source] Human Rights of Migrants: Challenges of the New DecadeINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 6 2001Patrick A. Taran This review summarizes main trends, issues, debates, actors and initiatives regarding recognition and extension of protection of the human rights of migrants. Its premise is that the rule of law and universal notions of human rights are essential foundations for democratic society and social peace. Evidence demonstrates that violations of migrants' human rights are so widespread and commonplace that they are a defining feature of international migration today. About 150 million persons live outside their countries; in many States, legal application of human rights norms to non-citizens is inadequate or seriously deficient, especially regarding irregular migrants. Extensive hostility against, abuse of and violence towards migrants and other non-nationals has become much more visible worldwide in recent years. Research, documentation and analysis of the character and extent of problems and of effective remedies remain minimal. Resistance to recognition of migrants' rights is bound up in exploitation of migrants in marginal, low status, inadequately regulated or illegal sectors of economic activity. Unauthorized migrants are often treated as a reserve of flexible labour, outside the protection of labour safety, health, minimum wage and other standards, and easily deportable. Evidence on globalization points to worsening migration pressures in many parts of the world. Processes integral to globalization have intensified disruptive effects of modernization and capitalist development, contributing to economic insecurity and displacement for many. Extension of principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights culminated in the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. With little attention, progress in ratifications was very slow until two years ago. A global campaign revived attention; entry into force is likely in 2001. Comparative analysis notes that ILO migrant worker Conventions have generally achieved objectives but States have resisted adoption of any standards on treatment of non-nationals. A counter-offensive against human rights as universal, indivisible and inalienable underlies resistance to extension of human rights protection to migrants. A parallel trend is deliberate association of migration and migrants with criminality. Trafficking has emerged as a global theme contextualizing migration in a framework of combatting organized crime and criminality, subordinating human rights protections to control and anti-crime measures. Intergovernmental cooperation on migration "management" is expanding rapidly, with functioning regional intergovernmental consultative processes in all regions, generally focused on strengthening inter-state cooperation in controlling and preventing irregular migration through improved border controls, information sharing, return agreements and other measures. Efforts to defend human rights of migrants and combat xenophobia remain fragmented, limited in impact and starved of resources. Nonetheless, NGOs in all regions provide orientation, services and assistance to migrants, public education and advocating respect for migrants rights and dignity. Several international initiatives now highlight migrant protection concerns, notably the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, the Global Campaign promoting the 1990 UN Convention, UN General Assembly proclamation of International Migrants Day, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia, anti-discrimination activity by ILO, and training by IOM. Suggestions to governments emphasize the need to define comprehensive, coordinated migration policy and practice based on economic, social and development concerns rather than reactive control measures to ensure beneficial migration, social harmony, and dignified treatment of nationals and non-nationals. NGOs, businesses, trade unions, and religious groups are urged to advocate respect for international standards, professionalize services and capacities, take leadership in opposing xenophobic behaviour, and join international initiatives. Need for increased attention to migrants rights initiatives and inter-agency cooperation by international organizations is also noted. [source] Labour market institutions and employment in FranceJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 1 2002Guy Laroque The purpose of this paper is to use individual data to study how the minimum wage and the welfare system combine to affect employment in France. Using the 1997 Labour Force Survey, we decompose non-employment of married women into three components: voluntary, classical (due to the minimum wage) and ,other' (a residual category). We find that the minimum wage explains close to 15% of non-employment for these women and that the disincentive effects of some welfare policy measures may be large. Our approach also allows us to evaluate various labour and welfare policy experiments in their effects on participation and employment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] TheConvergence of the Italian Regions and Unemployment: Theory and EvidenceJOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002Gaetano Carmeci We explore the links between the halt of the convergence process of Italian regions at the beginning of the 1970s and the increase in regional unemployment dispersion. We consider a neoclassical exogenous growth model with an imperfect labor market and show that during the transitional dynamics the imperfections of the labor market negatively influence the output growth rate. In particular, the model implies that centralized bargaining is likely to set a national minimum wage that is too high with respect to the labor productivity of the less developed regions, resulting in a negative impact on their per capita output growth. We test the implications of the model on a regional panel data set using the GMM framework. Both our market distortion measure and the unemployment rate are found to significantly lower the growth rate of per capita output. [source] Evaluating the Introduction of a National Minimum Wage: Evidence from a New Survey of Firms in IrelandLABOUR, Issue 1 2006Donal O'Neill We use data from a specifically designed survey of firms to estimate the employment effects of this change. Employment growth among firms with low-wage workers prior to the legislation was no different from that of firms not affected by the legislation. A more refined measure of the minimum wage, however, suggests that the legislation may have had a negative effect on employment for the small number of firms most severely affected by the legislation. However, the size of these effects is relatively modest. [source] ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE POSTED WORKERS DIRECTIVEMETROECONOMICA, Issue 4 2004Volker Meier ABSTRACT The consequences of an increase in the minimum wage for foreign workers in the construction sector, implied by the EU Posted Workers Directive, are analyzed. Due to the rising price of construction services, the factor demand for both construction services and capital in the tradeable good sector falls, and the wage rate in this sector declines. While the share of domestic workers increases with respect to both foreign workers and capital in the construction sector, this need not suffice to reduce unemployment. A possible higher level of employment of natives is not sufficient to raise natives' welfare. [source] Do Higher Real Minimum Wages Lead to More High School Dropouts?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Evidence from Maryland Across Races We explore whether higher levels of the real minimum wage have differing effects on high school dropout rates across students of various races and ethnicities (whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians). Using a panel of data across Maryland counties and annual observations in 1993,2004, we found higher real minimum wages to be associated with higher dropout rates for Hispanic students, but not for other races and ethnicities. We used a variety of model specifications and explanatory variables, including real income, the unemployment rate, teen pregnancy rates, and educational attainment among adults. Several of our findings are broadly consistent with commonly reported sociological observations regarding how behavioral choices may be affected by different levels across races and ethnicities of cultural integration of recent immigrants, family cohesiveness, the value placed on education, small business ownership, and hourly (vs. salaried) employment. [source] The National Minimum Wage: Coverage, Impact and Future,OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 2002David Metcalf Abstract Since its establishment in 1997, the Low Pay Commission (LPC) , whose main task is to recommend the rate for the national minimum wage (NMW) to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry , has operated in a very open manner. Commissioners and the (small) secretariat have visited all the corners of the UK and hundreds of workplaces. Large volumes of written evidence and much oral evidence inform successive reports (LPC, 1998, 2000, 2001a,b, 2003). The LPC also values and nurtures its links with the academic community, many of whom have undertaken research for the LPC which has greatly contributed to the debate on the merits or otherwise of the NMW. In addition the LPC have periodically held conferences where the latest research on low pay and the NMW is discussed and evaluated. Some of the papers in this volume were originally presented at just such a conference hosted by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics (LSE) on 28 September 2001 and organized (beautifully) by Joanna Swaffield of York University. In what follows the conference papers, those published in this volume, and related research are put into context. Section I deals with the thorny matter of coverage and data. The impact of the NMW on the pay distribution, employment and incomes is set out in section II. Some thoughts on the future of the NMW follow in section III. [source] Estimating the Impact of the Minimum Wage Using Geographical Wage Variation,OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 2002Mark B. Stewart Abstract This paper evaluates the impact on employment of the UK's introduction of a minimum wage in 1999 by exploiting the geographical variation in wages, which meant that the minimum wage's ,bite' into an area's wage distribution differed considerably across the country. The results indicate that, although the minimum wage had differential wage-distribution effects across the 140 areas of the country, employment growth after its introduction was not significantly lower in areas of the country with a high proportion of low-wage workers, whose wages had to be raised to comply, from that in areas with a low proportion of such workers. [source] Semi-Nonparametric Estimation of an Equilibrium Search ModelOXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 3 2000Pierre Koning We specify and estimate an equilibrium job search model with productivity differences across labour market segments. The model allows for two types of unemployment: frictional unemployment due to search frictions and structural unemployment due to wage floors. Wage floors exist because of high unemployment benefits or binding minimum wages. The productivity distribution is estimated semi-nonparametrically along the lines of Gallant-Nychka, using Hermite series approximation. We decompose the total unemployment rate and we examine the effects of changes in the minimum wage. [source] Britain and the Working Time RegulationsPOLITICS, Issue 1 2001Alasdair Blair It is now over a year since the Working Time Regulations entered force in Britain on 1 October 1998, during a period when the government also introduced the minimum wage. But whereas that piece of legislation appears to have faded away into the background of British industrial relations, the Working Time Regulations continue to remain a central topic. Based on a survey of British companies and organisations, this article reviews the implementation of the legislation and examines the scope of coverage. It finds that the failure of the Labour government to consult the social partners , employer and employee representatives , resulted in business being unprepared for the Regulations. The article also notes that the manner in which this legislation was introduced has meant that many of the employees who were working excessive hours continue to do so. [source] Intensification of workplace regimes in British horticulture: the role of migrant workersPOPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 6 2008Ben Rogaly Abstract In Britain, international migrants have very recently become the major workforce in labour-intensive horticulture. This paper explores the causes of the dramatic increase since the 1990s in the employment of migrant workers in this subsector. It locates this major change in a general pattern of intensification of horticultural production driven by an ongoing process of concentration in retailer power, and in the greater availability of migrant workers, shaped in part by state initiatives to manage immigration. The paper draws on concepts developed in the US literature on agrarian capitalism. It then uses case histories from British horticulture to illustrate how growers have directly linked innovations involving intensification through labour control to their relationships with retailers. Under pressure on ,quality', volume and price, growers are found to have ratcheted up the effort required from workers to achieve the minimum wage through reducing the rates paid for piecework, and in some cases to have changed the type of labour contractor they use to larger, more anonymous businesses. The paper calls for further, commodity-specific and spatially-aware research with a strong ethnographic component. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Intriguing Relation Between Adult Minimum Wage and Child LabourTHE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 462 2000Kaushik Basu Because most parents send their children to work when compelled by poverty, one would expect a rise in adult wage to lower child labour. However, if the rise in wage is achieved by a minimum wage law, its impact can be intriguing. It can, for instance, cause some adults to be unemployed and send their children to work, which in turn displaces more adult labour and sends more children to work. The paper solves this process and predicts the incidence of child labour. It shows that, for appropriate parametric configurations, child labour may fall or rise as the adult minimum wage is raised. [source] A Purposive Interpretation of the National Minimum Wage ActTHE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 4 2009Guy Davidov This article uses a purposive method of interpretation to suggest solutions to various questions raised in the application of the National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA). The article first considers the goals of minimum wage laws (and the NMWA in particular) by putting forward the justifications for such laws and addressing critiques. It is argued that the minimum wage is best understood as a mechanism for redistribution of resources and ensuring respect for the human dignity of workers. Building on this articulation of goals, the article then proceeds to consider which group of workers are included within the scope of the NMWA (interpreting terms such as ,worker', ,voluntary workers', apprentices and trainees); what are considered working hours for the purpose of the Act (focusing on cases of work/sleep combinations); and what constitutes part of the wage (focusing on tips, attendance allowances and deductions for accommodations). [source] One Hundred Years of British Minimum Wage LegislationBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2009Simon Deakin The Trade Boards Act 1909 was a landmark in the development of minimum wage regulation in Britain and around the world. Although their powers were limited, the trade boards had immediate and tangible effects in terms of raising living standards, and over time they became a core part of the system of state support for collective wage determination. While influential overseas, the wages councils (as the trade boards became after 1945) were eventually seen as providing only a partial solution to the problem of low pay. In the 1980s, their powers were reduced under the influence of deregulatory labour market policies, prior to their abolition in 1993. The British national minimum wage (,NMW'), which was introduced in 1998, despite appearances, is not a universal national minimum of the kind which the Webbs and other Fabian writers argued for a century ago. Notwithstanding a growing consensus that the supposed negative economic effects of the minimum wage have not been borne out by the experience of the NMW, public policy has yet to take fully on board its potential benefits, including the reduction of social costs and the promotion of social partnership. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||