Monopsony, Minimum Wages and Migration

We show in a monopsony model that in response to a small increase in migration employment will increase in both low productivity non-compliant firms who pay less than and in high productivity firms who pay more than the minimum wage, but will increase by proportionately more in minimum wage firms who are constrained by the labour supply curve. Using data from Thailand we provide evidence that increases in inward net migration are indeed associated with a proportionately greater increase in employment at than below the minimum wage.