DO WOMEN BENEFIT FROM MINIMUM WAGES?

DO WOMEN BENEFIT FROM MINIMUM WAGES?

Authors: M.A Olena Chorna
Lucas van der Velde
Type: IES Working Papers
Year: 2020
Number: 36
ISSN / ISBN:  
Published in: IES Working Papers 36/2020
Publishing place: Prague
Keywords: Minimum wage, wage gap, distribution-regression, difference-in-difference
JEL codes: C2, I2, J16
Suggested citation: Chorna O., van der Velde L. (2020): "Do Women Benefit from Minimum Wages?" IES Working Papers 36/2020. IES FSV. Charles University.
Abstract: We study how the large and unexpected increase in the minimum wage in Poland impacted the gender wage gap. For this purpose, we employ a distribution regression model coupled with a difference-in-differences estimator that recovers changes in the gender wage gap with minimum assumptions on the counterfactual wage distribution. We find that the increase in minimum wage closes the gender wage gap by almost 4 percentage points at the bottom of the wage distribution with a small spillover effect around the minimum wage. By contrast, at the top of the wage distribution gender inequality continued to grow. Minimum wage increases reduced
gender wage gap even in a context of growing inequality.
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