Minimum Wage Careers?

Posted: 23 Feb 2001

See all articles by William J. Carrington

William J. Carrington

Welch Consulting

Bruce Fallick

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Date Written: August 1999

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which people spend careers on minimum wage jobs. We find that a small but non-trivial number of NLSY respondents spend 25%, 50%, or even 75% of the first ten years of their career on minimum or near-minimum wage jobs. Workers with these minimum wage careers tend to be drawn from groups such as women, blacks, and the less-educated that are generally overrepresented in the low-wage population. The results indicate that lifetime incomes of some workers may be supported by a minimum wage. At the same time, these same groups would be disproportionately affected by any minimum wage-induced disemployment. The results suggest that minimum wage legislation has non-negligible effects on the lifetime opportunities of a significant minority of workers.

JEL Classification: J3

Suggested Citation

Carrington, William J. and Fallick, Bruce, Minimum Wage Careers? (August 1999). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=190855

William J. Carrington

Welch Consulting

7984 Old Georgetown Rd., Suite 7C
Bethesda, MD 20814
United States
301-215-9801 (Phone)
301-215-9118 (Fax)

Bruce Fallick (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland ( email )

East 6th & Superior
Cleveland, OH 44101-1387
United States

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