The Devil is in the Details: Heterogeneous Effects of the German Minimum Wage on Working Hours and Minijobs

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Hauptverfasser: Bossler, Mario, Liang, Ying, Schank, Thorsten
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Bossler, Mario
Liang, Ying
Schank, Thorsten
author_facet Bossler, Mario
Liang, Ying
Schank, Thorsten
contents In 2015, Germany introduced a national minimum wage. While the literature agrees on at most limited negative effects on the overall employment level, we go into detail and analyze the impact on the working hours dimension and on the subset of minijobs. Using data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey in 2010, 2014, and 2018, we find empirical evidence that the minimum wage significantly reduces inequality in hourly and monthly wages. While various theoretical mechanisms suggest a reduction in working hours, these remain unchanged on average. However, minijobbers experience a notable reduction in working hours which can be linked to the specific institutional framework. Regarding employment, the results show no effects for regular jobs, but there is a noteworthy decline in minijobs, driven by transitions to regular employment and non-employment. The transitions in non-employment imply a wage elasticity of employment of -0.1 for minijobs. Our findings highlight that the institutional setting leads to heterogeneous effects of the minimum wage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_17206
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Devil is in the Details: Heterogeneous Effects of the German Minimum Wage on Working Hours and Minijobs
Bossler, Mario
Liang, Ying
Schank, Thorsten
General Economics
Economics
In 2015, Germany introduced a national minimum wage. While the literature agrees on at most limited negative effects on the overall employment level, we go into detail and analyze the impact on the working hours dimension and on the subset of minijobs. Using data from the German Structure of Earnings Survey in 2010, 2014, and 2018, we find empirical evidence that the minimum wage significantly reduces inequality in hourly and monthly wages. While various theoretical mechanisms suggest a reduction in working hours, these remain unchanged on average. However, minijobbers experience a notable reduction in working hours which can be linked to the specific institutional framework. Regarding employment, the results show no effects for regular jobs, but there is a noteworthy decline in minijobs, driven by transitions to regular employment and non-employment. The transitions in non-employment imply a wage elasticity of employment of -0.1 for minijobs. Our findings highlight that the institutional setting leads to heterogeneous effects of the minimum wage.
title The Devil is in the Details: Heterogeneous Effects of the German Minimum Wage on Working Hours and Minijobs
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.17206