U.S. State Minimum Wage Policies and Employment Performance Improvement

Abstract

Federal, state and local departments of labor are managing the minimum wage levels. U.S. state minimum wage increases are positively associated with GRDP growth rates and education expenditure rates. Minimum wage increases are positively associated with economic capacities and human capital improvements. And U.S. state minimum wage increases are negatively associated with state citizen ideology scores. Thus, relatively conservative citizens are supporting the minimum wage increase and U.S. state governments/governors are reflecting these conservative citizen ideologies regardless of state governments' and state governors' ideologies. These are the strong evidences of state policy congruence in case of minimum wage policy. And politicians and public administrators should respect the evidence-based policy approaches. Specialist opinions, evaluation reports and experiences are excellent sources of evidence-based policy. Public policy decisions should be based on these evidence-based policy approaches. Especially, politicians and public administrators should manage the relationships between minimum wage policy and employment performances cautiously by using public performance measures and statistical research methods. And minimum wage policy should be harmonized with labor productivity improvement.