Beyond Labor Market Outcomes : The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Nondurable Consumption

How eff ective is the minimum wage at raising nondurable household consumption through the redistribution of income towards poor workers? Using novel data on retail sales by county, I exploit variation in the minimum wage rates across states and over time to answer this question. I find that a 10% increase in the minimum wage increases sales by 1.1%. I argue that such a large eff ect is explained by positive spillovers benefi ting the bottom quarter of the labor income distribution. As expected, the expenditure response to minimum wage hikes is stronger in counties where the policy is more binding