The Minimum Wage's Effects on Teenage Employment

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2011

Disciplines

Economics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Advisor

John Olson, Economics

Abstract

This paper continues the current discussion as to how increases in the minimum wage effect teenage employment. This debate focuses on model specification, centered about the inclusion of year effects for modeling the employment effect of the minimum wage. We use the recent federal minimum wage increases to continue the work of Burkhauser, Couch and Wittenburg (2000a) and Sabia (2009a) using month Current Population Survey (CPS) data from 1994 through 2009. Consistent evidence is found that minimum wage increases reduce teenage employment across specifications. These findings validate BCW's and Sabia's results, showing that increased variation in the minimum wage variable leads to a significant negative impact of increases in the minimum wage on teenage employment.

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