Welfare Reform on the Web (September 2008): Minimum Wage - overseas

The effect of minimum wages on immigrants' employment and earnings

P. M. Orrenius & M. Zavodny

Industrial & Labor Relations Review, vol. 61, 2008, p. 544-563

Examines how minimum wage laws affect the employment and wages of low-skilled immigrants and natives in the United States, by analysing results from the Current Population Survey for 1994-2005.

How living wage legislation affects US poverty rates

S. Chain

Journal of Labor Research, Vol. 29, 2008, p. 205-218

This article finds that living wage legislation, taken by individual cities and counties in the United States, does have a modest effect on poverty. These laws require businesses that have contracts with or receive assistance from the local government to pay workers a wage at or above a level deemed to be above federal poverty levels. However, state minimum wage laws do not reduce poverty. The author suggests that this difference is explained by the parties responsible for bearing the burden of the cost.