In a 2012 paper published in the peer-reviewed Industrial and Labor Relations Review (ILRReview), economists Joseph Sabia, Richard Burkhauser, and Benjamin Hansen concluded that the 39 percent increase in the New York state minimum wage in 2005-2007 (from the federal rate of $5.15 to $7.15) had “substantial adverse labor demand effects for low-skilled individuals.” (p. […]
In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address President Obama will likely repeat the call made he made in last year’s speech to raise the federal minimum wage. Just in case, here’s an FAQ on the minimum wage. Who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage? According to estimates from the Economic Policy […]
Janelle Jones and I have written up a short analysis of today’s numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on union membership in 2013. Here’s the blog version, and here is the same information in pdf format. In 140 characters or less: “In 2013, union membership was flat at 11.3 percent, on a big decline […]
In July, economists Jonathan Meer and Jeremy West made a splash with a new paper arguing that even though the minimum wage doesn’t appear to have much effect on the level of employment (a position that should make more traditional critics of the minimum wage feel uncomfortable), a higher minimum wage does lower future growth […]
I have a chapter in a new book edited by economists Tom Palley and Gustav Horn. The book is Restoring Shared Prosperity: A Policy Agenda from Leading Keynesian Economists and my chapter is called “The Indispensability of Full Employment for Shared Prosperity.” I argue that full employment should play a central role in any strategy to […]
University of Massachusetts economist Arindrajit Dube (on leave this spring at MIT) has an excellent new paper looking at the impact of the minimum wage on the federal poverty rate. In the past, I have generally relied on analyses along the lines of this recent chart prepared by the Economic Policy Institute’s David Cooper to […]
