Evidence on Employment Effects of Minimum Wages and Subminimum Wage Provisions From Panel Data on State Minimum Wage Laws

Abstract

We construct a panel data set on state-level minimum wage laws and economic conditions to reevaluate existing evidence on minimum wage effects on employment, most of which comes from time-series data. Our estimates of the elasticities of teen and young-adult employment-to-population ratios fall primarily in the range -0.1 to -0.2, similar to the consensus range of estimates from time-series studies. We also find evidence that youth subminimum wage provisions enacted by state legislatures have moderated the disemployment effects of minimum wages.