IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/t8wqk_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate Minimum Wages and Working Poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Wilmers, Nathan
  • Roh, Soohyun
  • Tang, Jiawei

Abstract

Starting in 2014, many large retail employers adopted voluntary corporate minimum wages. These minimums provided a wage floor affecting millions of workers. Novel employer-linked household panel data allow us to study how these employer wage-setting decisions affect working poverty. Minimums reduce poverty rates in adopting firms by 30% to 50%, relative to workers in similar jobs, labor markets and competitor employers. Minimums also narrow black/white, college/non-college, regional, and gender wage gaps within firms. Poverty reduction is not explained by shifting worker selection, pre-trends, or offsetting decreases in hours or health insurance. However, adopters employ more college-educated workers and intensify work.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilmers, Nathan & Roh, Soohyun & Tang, Jiawei, 2025. "Corporate Minimum Wages and Working Poverty," SocArXiv t8wqk_v1, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:t8wqk_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/t8wqk_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/681d112311ef8da2610b6960/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/t8wqk_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arindrajit Dube, 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Distribution of Family Incomes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 268-304, October.
    2. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Joerg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2018. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 13-70.
    3. David Card & Jörg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2013. "Workplace Heterogeneity and the Rise of West German Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 967-1015.
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    5. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    6. Ellora Derenoncourt & David Weil, 2024. "Voluntary Minimum Wages," NBER Working Papers 32546, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Hilary W. Hoynes & Marianne E. Page & Ann Huff Stevens, 2006. "Poverty in America: Trends and Explanations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 47-68, Winter.
    8. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    9. Kimberlin, Sara & Shaefer, H. Luke & Kim, Jiyoon, 2016. "Measuring poverty using the Supplemental Poverty Measure in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1998 to 2010," Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, IOS Press, issue 1, pages 17-47.
    10. David Brady & Ryan Finnigan & Sabine Hübgen, 2017. "Rethinking the risks of poverty: a framework for analyzing prevalences and penalties," LIS Working papers 693, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Richard V. Burkhauser & Drew McNichols & Joseph J. Sabia, 2023. "Minimum Wages and Poverty: New Evidence from Dynamic Difference-in-Differences Estimates," NBER Working Papers 31182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. David Brady & Marco Giesselmann & Ulrich Kohler & Anke Radenacker, 2018. "How to measure and proxy permanent income: evidence from Germany and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 321-345, September.
    13. Jonathon Hazell & Christina Patterson & Heather Sarsons & Bledi Taska, 2022. "National Wage Setting," NBER Working Papers 30623, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Brady, David & Finnigan, Ryan & Kohler, Ulrich & Legewie, Joscha, 2020. "The Inheritance of Race Revisited: Childhood Wealth and Income and Black–White Disadvantages in Adult Life Chances," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7, pages 599-627.
    15. Evan P. Starr & J.J. Prescott & Norman D. Bishara, 2021. "Noncompete Agreements in the US Labor Force," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(1), pages 53-84.
    16. Ellora Derenoncourt & David Weil, 2024. "Voluntary Minimum Wages," Working Papers 333, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    17. Erica L. Groshen, 1991. "Sources of Intra-Industry Wage Dispersion: How Much Do Employers Matter?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(3), pages 869-884.
    18. François Gerard & Lorenzo Lagos & Edson Severnini & David Card, 2021. "Assortative Matching or Exclusionary Hiring? The Impact of Employment and Pay Policies on Racial Wage Differences in Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(10), pages 3418-3457, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Arindrajit Dube & Attila S. Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 32878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," Working Papers 228, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    4. Ricardo Dahis & Christiane Szerman, 2023. "Decentralizing Development: Evidence from Government Splits," Monash Economics Working Papers 2023-18, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    5. Maclean, J. Catherine & Pichler, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2020. "Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13132, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Coraggio, Luca & Pagano, Marco & Scognamiglio, Annalisa & Tåg, Joacim, 2025. "JAQ of all trades: Job mismatch, firm productivity and managerial quality," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    7. Diego Daruich & Sabrina Di Addario & Raffaele Saggio, 2023. "The Effects of Partial Employment Protection Reforms: Evidence from Italy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2880-2942.
    8. Philipp Barteska & Jay Euijung Lee, 2024. "Bureaucrats and the Korean export miracle," Discussion Papers 2024-11, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    9. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    10. Dami'an Vergara, 2022. "Minimum Wages and Optimal Redistribution," Papers 2202.00839, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    11. Philipp Barteska & Jay Euijung Lee, 2025. "Personnel is policy (implementation): Bureaucrats and the Korean export miracle," CEP Discussion Papers dp2099, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Han Bu & Zhou Xun & Sha Cai, 2024. "Big data and inter-firm wage disparities: theory and evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-36, August.
    13. Kline, Patrick, 2024. "Firm wage effects," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    14. Justin C. Wiltshire, 2023. "Walmart Supercenters and Monopsony Power: How A Large, Low-Wage Employer Impacts Local Labor Markets," Department Discussion Papers 2304, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    15. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," CEPA Discussion Papers 64, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    16. Kamila Cygan-Rehm, 2022. "Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 9892, CESifo.
    17. Li Li & Haoming Liu, 2024. "The minimum wage and cross-community crime disparities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-37, June.
    18. Mac Clay, Pablo & Börner, Jan & Sellare, Jorge, 2023. "Institutional and macroeconomic stability mediate the effect of auctions on renewable energy capacity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    19. Coury, Michael & Falconer, Liam & La Nauze, Andrea, 2024. "Wildfire smoke and private provision of public air-quality monitoring," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    20. Stefan Bauernschuster & Michael Grimm & Cathy M. Hajo, 2023. "The Impact of Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Clinics on Early 20th Century U.S. Fertility and Mortality," CESifo Working Paper Series 10421, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:t8wqk_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.