Empirical work on the minimum wage typically estimates effects averaged across high‐ and low‐wage areas. Low‐wage labor markets could potentially be less able to absorb minimum wage increases, in turn leading to more negative employment effects. In this article, we examine minimum wage effects in low‐wage counties, where relative minimum wage ratios reach as high as 0.82, well beyond the state‐based ratios in extant studies. Using data from the American Community Survey, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, and the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages, we implement event study and difference‐in‐differences methods, estimating average causal effects for all events in our sample and separately for areas with lower and higher impacts. We find positive wage effects, especially in high‐impact counties, but do not detect adverse effects on employment, weekly hours, or annual weeks worked. We do not find negative employment effects among women, Blacks, and/or Hispanics. In high‐impact counties, we find substantial declines in household and child poverty. These results inform policy debates about providing exemptions to a $15 federal minimum wage in low‐wage areas.

中文翻译：

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低工资地区的最低工资影响是否更大？

关于最低工资的经验工作通常估计在高薪和低薪地区平均的效果。低工资的劳动力市场可能无法吸收最低工资的增长，从而导致更多的负面就业影响。在本文中，我们研究了低工资县的最低工资影响，这些县的相对最低工资比率高达0.82，远远超过了现有研究中基于州的比率。利用美国社区调查，季度劳动力指标以及就业和工资季度普查数据，我们实施了事件研究和差异方法，以估计样本中所有事件的平均因果效应，并分别评估低影响区域的平均因果效应。和更高的影响。我们发现了积极的工资效应，尤其是在高影响力县，但没有发现对就业的不利影响，每周几小时或每年几周。我们没有发现妇女，黑人和/或西班牙裔美国人对就业产生负面影响。在影响力较大的县，我们发现家庭和儿童贫困状况大幅度下降。这些结果为有关在低工资地区提供15美元的联邦最低工资豁免的政策辩论提供了信息。