Eric Crampton • Jun 27, 2015 •
It's a bit predictable. Whenever there's a hike in the NZ minimum wage, the unions point to Doucouliagos's metastudy that minimum wages in the US have had small (if any) employment effects and to Dube's work also showing little effect in the US. I point to that American minimum wages are less than 40% of the median wage and that … Read More
Eric Crampton • May 25, 2015 •
Adam Ozimek summarises:Criticisms of the state data approach motivated detailed examinations of how robust the models were to different specifications of pre-existing state and regional trends. Concerns about the sensitivity of the model... Read More
Eric Crampton • Mar 05, 2015 •
It's never enough, is it?As reply to those clamouring for a higher minimum wage, after the National government just hiked it by $0.50 to $14.75, some charts from MBIE's advice on the minimum wage hike.The minimum wage is 64.9% of the median wage and wi... Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 25, 2014 •
Fairfax's Richard Meadows asked me a few questions about living wages and minimum wages. Some of them made it into his excellent story, here. I agree with everything Matt Nolan said there too.[Update: Nolan's extended comments are here. And I'm really pleased to see that Richard's linked the more extensive commentary from both of us.]Here are the bits of mine … Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 10, 2014 •
The NBR asked me about John Key's proposed hike to the Minimum Wage. So I told them:New Zealand’s minimum wage is among the world’s highest, when we consider it in relation to the median wage. American minimum wages vary state-to-state, but the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is about 40% of median hourly wages in the US; ratios in individual … Read More
Eric Crampton • Nov 01, 2013 •
I love this chart from Treasury's advice on living wage proposals. There's a morbid part of me that wishes the thing would be implemented as a minimum wage - the resulting substantial increase in unemployment would do a good job of settling certai... Read More
Eric Crampton • Sep 03, 2013 •
Two candidates for the Labour Party leadership have promised that they will require the payment of "living wages" for all government employees and for all government contractors. Matthew Hooton asked about the likely effects. Were the government pro... Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 27, 2013 •
Despite inflation outcomes slightly below the lower-bound of RBNZ's inflation target, and despite high unemployment rates, New Zealand's increased the minimum wage by $0.25 to $13.75. It's mildly interesting to check the CPI-deflated series and one indexed to average wages. The blue and red lines track the nominal and CPI-adjusted minimum wages on the left hand … Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 26, 2013 •
Stephen Gordon wants to construct a Venn diagram showing the proportion of people who accept the evidence on minimum wages (it's a poor way of helping the poor) and who also accept the evidence on global warming (the place does seem to be getting warme... Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 18, 2013 •
Hey, Australia has a high minimum wage and low unemployment! Why can't America have that too! Well, it's worth looking a bit beyond the headline rates. Now I could have a whole lot of this wrong; I sure am not an expert on Australia's Byzantine labou... Read More