Although the sectors and fraction of workers covered are small given the low rates of formality and urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as the number of covered workers grows wage regulation will become increasingly significant. We find that higher minimum wage values are associated with higher GDP per capita. Importantly, however, we find that the minimum wage relative to the mean wage is higher in low income countries than in lower- and upper-middle income countries. Indeed, SSA as a whole reflects a bias towards a more aggressive minimum wage policy compared to the rest of the world. There is limited research on the employment effect of minimum wages in SSA, but the few findings are consistent with the broad summary of global research. By and large, introducing and raising the minimum wage has a small negative impact or no measurable negative impact. However, there is significant variation around this average finding – the employment elasticities are not constant nor linear. Where increases in a minimum wage are large and immediate, this can result in employment losses, but more modest increases usually have very little observably adverse effects and may have positive impacts on wages. The great variability in findings on employment could be due partly to the great variation in the detail of the minimum wage regimes and schedules country by country, but also by the variations in compliance. We find that higher Kaitz indices are associated with higher levels of non-compliance. The release of country-level earnings and employment data at regular intervals lies at the heart of a future country-focused minimum wage research agenda for Africa.

中文翻译：

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撒哈拉以南非洲地区的最低工资：入门

尽管由于撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）的正规化和城市化率低，所覆盖的工人的部门和比例很小，但是随着所覆盖工人的数量增加，工资监管将变得越来越重要。我们发现，较高的最低工资水平与较高的人均GDP相关。但是，重要的是，我们发现，低收入国家的最低工资相对于平均工资的水平高于中低收入国家。的确，与世界其他地区相比，SSA总体上反映了对更积极的最低工资政策的偏见。关于撒哈拉以南非洲地区最低工资对就业的影响的研究有限，但很少有发现与全球研究的广泛总结相一致。总的来说，引入和提高最低工资只会产生很小的负面影响，或者没有可衡量的负面影响。但是，这个平均发现周围有很大的差异–就业弹性不是恒定的也不是线性的。在最低工资大幅增加且立即产生的情况下，这可能会导致就业损失，但适度的增加通常很少产生明显的不利影响，并且可能对工资产生积极影响。就业结果的差异很大，部分原因是各国之间最低工资制度和时间表的细节差异很大，而且合规性也有所差异。我们发现，较高的Kaitz指数与较高的不遵从水平相关。