Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Monica Das

Abstract

To estimate the effect of an increase in minimum wages on gender, this paper utilizes a natural experiment opportunity, arising from increases in 21 states of the U.S. and the District of Columbia in 2015. In my study, I implement a difference-in-differences (DID) methodology to evaluate the impact of the increase in minimum wages implemented in 2015 on gender in the Production industry, the Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media industry and the Transportation and Material Moving industry. Through my research, instead of focusing on the employment effects of minimum wages, I shed light on the effectiveness of minimum wages as a tool of redistribution of income for low wage earners. My results conclude that the greatest impact of an increase in minimum wages in 2015 can be witnessed in the Production industry, where earnings of single women with one child increased by 9.60 percent and earnings of divorced women with no child increased by 9.65 percent. My findings report that the second largest impact of an increase in minimum wages in 2015 was observed in the Transportation and Material Moving industry, where earnings of divorced men with one child increased by 6.80 percent and earnings of married men with no child increased by 6.69 percent. The impact of an increase in minimum wages in 2015 had no impact on the earnings of workers in the Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media industry.

Download

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS