Wage Effects Research Articles

Nursing unions: A scoping review of outcomes for employees, patients, and administrators

BackgroundNursing labor organization is consequential to many stakeholders, but collective evidence for outcomes associated with nurse unionization is lacking. PurposeTo synthesize evidence of associations between nursing unions and nurse, patient, and system outcomes. MethodA scoping review. FindingsTwenty-four articles spanning nearly 50 years were abstracted. Most studies (n=16; 67%) included nurse outcomes, usually remuneration (n=10; 42%). Patient and systems outcomes were less common (for each: n=7; 29%). Union wage premiums were modest. Evidence for other nurse outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, retention) was limited and mixed. Unionization was associated with improvements in many but not all patient outcomes studied, and with operational differences, including decreased staffing and labor substitution. DiscussionCollective bargaining outcomes may help administrators understand nurses’ needs and concerns and thereby improve nurse recruitment and retention. For example, modest wage effects may signal non-wage priorities among nurses, which are understudied and worthy subjects of future research.

ANALYSIS OF THE DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS, AND THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE. AN ECONOMETRIC APPROACH

ABSTRACT: The sustainability of socio-economic and industrial systems is a key concern, particularly within the framework of the 2030 agenda. A holistic understanding of the functioning and relationships of these systems is essential if we want to implement practical actions to achieve sustainability. This study uses econometric techniques, such as the distributed lag autoregressive model, to explore the interactions between industrial and environmental factors and the unemployment rate. The variables analyzed include working hours, wage costs, and tropospheric ozone concentration, over two periods: 2008-2020 (reduced period) and 2008-2024 (extended period). Between both periods, substantial differences have been found in the variables significantly influencing the unemployment rate. The significance of working hours and ozone (O3) concentration, determinants of the unemployment rate in the reduced period, are replaced by wage costs, determining the unemployment rate in the extended period. The results show that an initial increase in worked hours reduces unemployment, while wage increases and high levels of O3 tend to increase the unemployment rate. Granger causality analysis suggests bidirectional relationships between unemployment, wage costs, and O3 concentration, highlighting the connection between the different aspects and feedback collateral effects. The study underscores the need for balanced socioeconomic policies that promote both economic growth and environmental sustainability and the promotion of fostering of technological innovations. The importance of policies that mitigate the adverse effects of wage increases on employment is underlined, and that favor a more sustainable development model capable of decoupling economic well-being from intensive resource consumption. Keywords: Sustainability, Socioeconomic systems, ARDL techniques, Granger causality, unemployment, O3 concentration, working hours, hourly wage.

The Minimum Wage in Greece: A Review of Institutional Features, Developments and Effects Between 1975 and 2023

Abstract This paper takes a historical perspective and assesses the evolution of the institutional features in setting the minimum wage in Greece between 1975 and 2023. It also evaluates developments regarding the minimum wage level, its bite and alignment with productivity. The paper reviews the limited available empirical literature on the association of the minimum wage with labour market outcomes (average wages, employment, inequality). It presents new estimates of the elasticity of average wages to the minimum wage. One of the paper’s key points is that the minimum wage setting mechanism has changed over time as the economic environment has changed. Reviewing the evolution of the minimum wage over time to evaluate whether the minimum wage follows productivity developments and whether the minimum wage bites leads to the second and third takeaways of the paper. The minimum wage follows productivity developments over the longer term but not always in the short term. The bite of the minimum wage is high and appears to be higher when government intervention in setting the minimum wage is stronger. As for the impact of the minimum wage on average wages, the new estimates of the elasticity of the average to the minimum wage the paper provides, use more precisely measured wage rates, which show a high elasticity of average to minimum wages. Finally, the review of the existing literature on the employment effects of the minimum wage shows that, as in other countries, the results are mixed with modest negative or no effects.

PENGARUH UPAH MINIMUM, TINGKAT PENDIDIKAN DAN USIA TERHADAP PENYERAPAN TENAGA KERJA DI JAWA TIMUR TAHUN 2017-2021

The objective of this research is to discuss and analyze the effect of minimum wage, education level and age on labor force absorption in 38 regencies and cities in East Java. A 2017-2021 data was examined using Fixed Effect Model. The results of the analysis indicate that Municipal Minimum Wage negatively and significantly influences the labor absorption in regencies and cities in East Java, that age positively and significantly influence the labor absorption in regencies and cities in East Java, and that education level negatively but insignificantly impacts the labor absorption in regencies and cities in East Java.

The Effect of State Minimum Wage Increases on CEO Compensation: Evidence of Labor Donation in Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACT In this paper, we test the “labor donation” hypothesis, which posits that intrinsically motivated individuals willingly accept lower compensation to work in nonprofit organizations (NPOs). We do so by examining the response of NPO CEO compensation to exogeneous increases in labor costs resulting from state-level minimum wage hikes, finding these increases are followed by declines in CEO compensation. Consistent with the labor donation hypothesis, we find the declines in compensation are larger for CEOs who we expect to have greater intrinsic motivation, i.e., those whose NPOs are headquartered in counties with higher levels of religiosity, in counties with greater levels of social capital, and those who work for a local NPO as opposed to a national NPO. In contrast to the decline in compensation we observe for NPO CEOs, we do not find an impact on for-profit CEO compensation. JEL Classifications: G3; J33; J38; L3; L3.

Chinese Minimum Wages and Health

Variation in the timing of changes in the minimum wage across provinces in China is exploited using individual/household longitudinal survey data from 2010 to 2018 to examine potential health effects on working age individuals in households that are likely affected by minimum wages. Minimum wage increases are estimated to improve self-reported health particularly by reducing the incidence of self-reported overall poor health. There is also reasonably strong evidence that they reduce unhappiness and lower dissatisfaction with less robust evidence that they improve mental health and lower recent discomfort. Importantly, there is a type of “dose-response” effect: the estimates indicate no health effects of minimum wage increases on those in households likely not affected financially by the minimum wage with health effects increasing the more likely the household is financially affected. The results are driven by the findings for males.

Minimum wages and foster care placement disruption

AbstractWe examine the potential secondary impacts of raising the minimum wage in a jurisdiction on the efficiency of its foster care placement system. We employ the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) restricted‐access dataset representing all children in the US foster care system for the years 2000–21. We calculate placement efficiency as the number of yearly moves experienced by a child in the foster care system, with a decrease in the number of placements interpreted as benefitting children both psychologically and behaviourally. This increase in stability benefits the foster parents and corresponds to a smaller financial strain on the public. After including various controls and state‐year fixed effects, our Tobit and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) analyses find that increased minimum wages are significantly associated with lower levels of placement disruption. We take this as promising initial descriptive evidence for the secondary effects of the minimum wage on reducing the financial burden, and increasing the placement efficiency, of the foster care system.

Is a single minimum wage policy viable option? Evidence from the impact of minimum wage on youth employment in Malaysia

The present study is aimed to identify an ideal mechanism to reduce negative effect of minimum wage on youth employment generation. Using available data from Department of Statistics, the study runs an annual panel regression at the state level based on fixed effect specification model. The finding demonstrates that the minimum wage has a negative effect on employment, particularly among youth. It implies that there is an excess of labour supply in the market at the current wage rate. As a result, the rate set is higher than equilibrium, signifying firm disadvantages. The negative effect is more prevalent if the single national minimum wage rate policy is applied to all states. Therefore, the national wage policy should be thoroughly examined. Instead, a regional wage rate should be explored as a potential solution for mitigating and preventing negative employment effects.

Can minimum wage increases narrow the gender wage gap? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT Using data from the 2011–2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this paper examines the effect of minimum wage increases on the gender wage gap. The results show that minimum wage increases can significantly reduce the gender wage gap. We further examine the impact of minimum wages on the gender wage gap across the wage distribution and find that minimum wages are conducive to narrowing the gender wage gap at the bottom and middle parts of the wage distribution, but not conducive to reducing the gender wage gap at the upper part of the wage distribution. We also identity heterogeneous effects of minimum wages on the gender wage gap across age, education level, hukou, and work unit. Finally, we find that minimum wages have a negative effect on low-wage workers’ employment. Therefore, governments need to weigh their role in reducing the gender wage gap against the potential negative employment effects when adjusting the minimum wage standard.

Competition in the labor market: The wage effect of employer concentration in China

AbstractCompetition in the labor market theoretically leads to higher wages, yet empirical evidence to substantiate it, particularly in developing countries, has been sparse. Our study delves into the impact of increased competition in the labor market on workers' wages using a panel dataset from Chinese industrial firms spanning 1998 to 2013. Employing OLS and IV regressions, we demonstrate that a decrease in employer concentration is significantly linked to higher wages. The elasticities of employer concentration on wages fall within the range of −0.034 and −0.107. Additionally, our findings suggest that state‐owned enterprises gained the most from this upswing in competition, primarily due to restructuring. Furthermore, we demonstrate that total factor productivity serves as an important channel linking employer concentration to wages.

The effect of minimum wage increases on the labor productivity of star-rated hotels: evidence from China

The effect of minimum wage increases on the labor productivity of star-rated hotels: evidence from China

Inflation’s Reduction of the Real Minimum Wage and Unemployment in the USA: 1987 to 2021

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Hundreds of articles have been written that include empirical estimates of the dis-employment effects of minimum wages; however, many of these articles find statistically insignificant effects, some find significant negative effects, and a few find significant positive effects. Most of these studies use multivariate analyses which can be criticized for omitting key variables. The omitted variables problem ruins all statistics and estimates. This paper uses reiterative truncated projected least squares (RTPLS), a solution to the omitted variables problem, to estimate the percentage increase in unemployment due to a one percent increase in the real minimum wage using monthly data for the 50 states of the USA from 1987 to 2021. RTPLS produces a separate elasticity for every observation where differences in these estimates are due to omitted variables. We argue that RTPLS solves most of the econometric problems that David Neumark identified in his keynote address at a minimum wage conference in Berlin in 2018. We find that the percentage change in the unemployment rate due to a one percent change in the minimum wage ranges between 1.156 and 3.389, that the elasticities for different states tend to move together over time, and that all these elasticities are statistically significant at a 95 percent confidence level.</span></p>

Immigration, domestic labor, and earnings inequality among native-born women in the US

ABSTRACT The wage effects of immigration have been widely studied, yet much of the research has focused on competitive threats to low-skilled native-born men. In contrast, this paper applies a gender lens to explore possible complementary relationships between immigration-induced outsourcing of domestic work and the earnings of native-born women, while recognizing the classed and racialized nature of domestic labor. Empirically, this article examines subgroup variations in earnings among full-time employed native-born women by education and race/ethnicity in relation to the state share of immigrants in the domestic service sector. The analysis combines data from the 2012 American Community Survey with state-level work-family policy data collected for 2010, accounting for compositional differences and selection into the labor force. Likely due to increased availability of affordable domestic services, the results show a higher immigrant share is associated with greater earnings for native-born women overall. However, education and race/ethnicity moderate this association, indicating that highly educated non-Hispanic white women benefit more than other women because the labor process and outsourcing of household production are classed and racialized. Hence, states with a higher share of immigrants filling domestic services exhibit wage dispersion patterns that reinforce intersectional inequality among native-born women.

Identifikasi Pengaruh Investasi Sektor Industri dan Upah Minimum Provinsi terhadap Penyerapan Tenaga Kerja Industrial di Provinsi Jambi

This research aims to analyze the effect of investment and minimum wages on labor absorption in the industrial sector in Jambi Province. The analytical tool used is multiple linear regression. The research results show that simultaneously investment and the minimum wage together have a significant effect on labor absorption. Then, partially, investment and minimum wage variables have a significant effect on labor absorption.

Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in Mombasa County, Kenya

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute over 70% of jobs, contribute to GDP, aid industrial development, satisfy local demand for services, innovate and support large firms with inputs and services. However, the SMEs in Mombasa County are constantly faced with the threat of failure where three out five fails at infancy. The study investigated the influence of economic factors (taxation, finance access and wages and unemployment) on growth of SMEs in Kenya, in Mombasa County. The specific objectives of the study were; to explore the effect of taxation on growth of SMEs, to find out the effect of Financial Access on growth of SMEs, to determine the effect of wages on growth of SMEs operating, and to evaluate the effect of general unemployment on growth of SMEs operating in Mombasa County. This study employed the institutional theory of growth, the Schumpeter theory of growth and the Endogenous growth theory anchored the study. An explanatory research design was used so as to meet the research objectives. The target population was 54,245 registered SMEs and a sample size of 246 was derived using the Cochran, statistical formula. The list of registered SMEs in Mombasa formed the study population. A Systematic Random Sampling was used from a sample of 246 SMEs was drawn. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Multiple regression Analysis technique was the main technique to find the effect of social economic factors on SME growth. to analyze the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences with a significance level set at 0.05. Findings showed that SE conditions are just modest level. Correlation results showed that Taxation conditions (r=.344, p=.000), Financial Access (r=.430, p=.000), Wages affordability (r=.241, p=.000) are positively and significantly correlated with SME growth. Regression results showed that SE factors; Taxation conditions (=.268, p=.000), Financial Access ( =.383, p=.000), Wages ( =.182, p=.015) and Unemployment ( = -.170, p=.045) has significance effect on SMEs growth. Conclusions; Socioeconomic can reverse the current trend of high SMEs failure rate. Socioeconomic factors can buck the present trend of a high failure rate among SMEs. The study recommended that the county and national governments should implement measures enhancing tax benefits for SMEs such as utilizing the taxes prudently. Additionally, the SMEs should adopt strategies that enhance internal financial capabilities so as to incase their revenue streams. Moreover, it is recommended the SMEs to have a working and sustainable wage policy that is able to attracts and keeps talented workforce and therefore ensure continued business growth. By using a multi-sectoral approach, both local and national governments should prioritize and focus on short- and long-term policies that lower the rising rates of unemployment.

글로벌 가치사슬에서의 위치가 임금에 미치는 영향

This study analyses the impact of Korean manufacturing's position in the global value chain on wages, i.e., estimates the impact of the relative position of Korean manufacturing on the smile curve, which represents the relationship between production stage and value added in the global value chain. The main findings of the analysis are as follows. First, we find that wages are higher at the top and bottom of the value chain in Korean manufacturing. Second, we estimate an interaction between occupational category and the smile curve and find that the wage effect of the smile curve is pronounced for production workers, but not for white collar workers. For production workers, wages are relatively higher at the top and bottom of the value chain, meaning that even within the same production occupation, there are differences in wages depending on the position in the manufacturing value chain. This suggests that productivity and wages need to improve in the middle of the value chain to mitigate the wage polarisation within the same occupation in manufacturing.

The effect of minimum wages on self-reported physical and mental health in China

We exploit provincial variation in minimum wages allowed by the 2004 Chinese regulation to study the impact of minimum wages on the health of workers. We use data from Wave 1 of the World Health Organization's Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) conducted in 2007–2010. We consider measures of self-reported health in ten domains and a measure of general health obtained from a factor analysis as dependent variables when estimating ordered probit models and linear models, respectively. We find that real minimum wages have a small, but not negligible, negative effect on most of the health outcomes and general health. The result is robust to several controls, including reporting heterogeneity. The negative effect on health is driven by the deterioration of working conditions, due to the increase in the number of days worked per week for public and private employees.

Effects of the Minimum Wage (MW) on Income Inequality: Systematic Review and Analysis of the Spanish Case

The minimum wage has become a standard measure in the economic and social policies of countries all over the world. The primary objective of this measure is to guarantee that workers receive a minimum wage that allows them to lead a decent life, thereby reducing inequality and poverty. However, studies on the minimum wage have not focused on assessing the effects on these dimensions but only on employment. The objective of this study is to address this research gap by analysing the effects of minimum wage increases on income inequality and poverty. To this end, firstly, a systematic review of the empirical analyses was conducted using the PRISMA methodology, with a view to ensuring that all empirical evidence was available. Secondly, the Spanish case was examined. The significant increase in minimum wage in Spain in 2019 (21.3% in real terms) presents an invaluable opportunity to utilise this event as a natural experiment to generate new evidence. A difference-in-differences approach was employed to assess the impact of this phenomenon in the period 2018–2019 with microdata from European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC for Spain). In doing so, two basic scientific contributions were made. The first one, a systematic, exhaustive, and up-to-date literature review (up to June 2024), as there is, to our knowledge, no recent systematic review of this relationship (minimum wage vs. inequality). The available evidence indicates a clear inverse relationship between the minimum wage and inequalities and poverty. The second one, regarding the Spanish case, there has been a dearth of scientific studies on this subject. Thus, this paper provides new scientific evidence demonstrating that a significant increase in the minimum wage can significantly improve the income of low-wage earners, thereby reducing income inequality and in-work poverty. Furthermore, there is evidence of a spillover effect towards income groups closer to the treatment group.

Staff Welfare Programs and Performance of Security Guards in Selected Private Security Companies in Mbale City, Uganda

Purpose: The study examined the effect of staff welfare programs and performance of security guards in selected private security companies in Mbale City, Uganda. The specific objectives were: i) to establish the effect of training and performance of security guards in selected Private Security Companies in Mbale City; ii) to identify the effect of medical benefits and performance of security guards in selected Private Security Companies in Mbale City, and iii) to investigate the effect of wages and other allowances on the performance of security guards in selected Private Security Companies in Mbale City. Methodology: A correlational research design was employed, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the research problem. Data was collected from 91 respondents, yielding a response rate of 77.7% which was adequate to conduct the study. Sampling techniques included simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Data collection tools comprised a questionnaire and interview guide for managers/supervisors of private security companies in Mbale City. Findings: The analysis involved the use of descriptive and inferential statistics in the form of percentages, frequencies and multiple regression analysis, respectively. The findings revealed a positive and significant effect of training and performance (β=.112, t=0.993, p<0.0001); a negative but significant effect of medical benefits and performance (β= -.583, t=6.334, p<0.0001), and a negative but significant effect of wages and allowances and performance (β= -.264, t =2.417, p<0.0001). Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study recommends the continuous training of security guards, adhering to the procedural terms and conditions set out in the training policy of private security companies, and strategically investing more resources in training and developing the capacity of personnel. Additionally, it is crucial to provide a minimum medical insurance package and enhance basic medical care standards. Furthermore, improving wages and related allowances like transport is essential to motivate the workforce, necessitating more investment in the remuneration budget to boost performance.

Minimum wage and internal labor migration: Evidence from China

We study the geographical allocation consequences of minimum wage, using individual-level migration data and the substantial variation over time in minimum wages across 262 counties in China. Our preferred specification shows that a 10% increase in the local minimum wage decreases the probability of outmigration by 1.52 percentage points. Using data from a major online recruitment platform, we further corroborate the main finding by showing that workers are less likely to search for a job in other cities when their city of residence experiences an increase in minimum wage.