Minimum Wages

A comprehensive review of evidence on the effect of minimum wages on employment, skills, wage and income distributions, and longer-term labor market outcomes concludes that the minimum wage is not a good policy tool.

David Neumark is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor.

William L. Wascher is Senior Associate Director in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board.