In analyses of minimum wages, positive "ripple effects" and subminimum wages are difficult to distinguish from measurement error. Indeed, prior work posits that a simple, symmetric measurement process may underlie both phenomena in Current Population Survey data for the full working age...

Over the past decade, organized labor has played a significant role in advocating for minimum wage increases. In this paper, we investigate the effects of minimum wage increases on union membership among individuals in minimum wage intensive industries. Consistent with a "freeriding" hypothesis,...

We develop new facts relating news coverage, interest groups, and events in the legislative histories of minimum wage increases. First, we create and validate a database of news articles that includes coverage of minimum wages and organized labor. Second, we show that policy changes predict...

Over the past decade, organized labor has played a significant role in advocating for minimum wage increases. Why might this be, given that the minimum wage may act as a substitute for the bargaining power offered by labor unions? In this paper, we study the interplay between minimum wages and...

This paper presents results from the third year of a multiyear, pre-committed research design for analyzing recent minimum wage changes.

Clemens and Strain present early evidence on the employment effects of state minimum wage increases enacted between January 2013 and January 2015 and offer an interpretative framework to understand why it is of interest to study recent changes in isolation.

Why do individuals join interest groups?

This paper presents a data set that tracks effective minimum wage rates across the US states, including the District of Columbia, from January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2018.

Empirical research on minimum wages has historically focused on employment effects, with the implicit assumption that workers who remain employed under a minimum wage regime are better off. This paper develops a simple model and a stylized example to highlight the importance of an...

Using Current Population Survey data, we assess whether and to what extent the burden of "wage theft" - wage payments below the statutory minimum wage - falls disproportionately on various demographic groups following minimum wage increases. For most racial and ethnic groups at most ages we find...