| Author Name | KAWAGUCHI Daiji (Faculty Fellow, RIETI) /MORI Yuko (Hitotsubashi University) |
|---|---|
| Creation Date/NO. | June 2009 09-E-032 |
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Abstract
This paper considers whether minimum wage is a well-targeted anti-poverty policy by examining the backgrounds of minimum-wage workers, and whether raising the minimum wage reduces employment for unskilled workers. An examination of micro data from a large-scale government household survey, the Employment Structure Survey (Shugyo Kozo Kihon Chosa), reveals that about half of minimum-wage workers belong to households with annual incomes of more than 5 million yen as a non-head of household. A regression analysis indicates that an increase in the minimum wage moderately reduces the employment of male teenagers and middle-aged, married females, while it encourages the employment of high school age youth.
Published: Daiji kawaguchi and Yuko Mori, 2009. "Is Minimum Wage an Effective Anti-Poverty Policy in Japan?" Pacific Economic Review, Vol. 14(4), pp. 532-554.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0106.2009.00467.x/abstract
