UC Berkeley Press Release Economists' new research shows
positive effects of minimum-wage increases BERKELEY — As various
states consider minimum wage increases, and with Democratic
Presidential nominee Barack Obama proposing that the minimum
wage be increased and indexed to adjust for cost-of-living
increases, researchers at the University of California,
Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE)
have found that such increases do benefit the lowest-paid
workers and do not have negative effects on their employment.
Institute director Michael Reich, a UC Berkeley economist, has
authored two new reports on the topic. "Do Minimum Wages Really
Reduce Teen Employment?," a study completed last month by Reich
and campus labor economists Sylvia Allegretto and Arindrajit
Dube, used data from the government's Current Population Survey
from 1990 through 2007 to analyze minimum-wage impacts on
teenagers, who represent about one-fourth of all minimum-wage
workers. The study controlled for state, regi