EPI Research (Page 9 )

  • Minimum Wages: Evaluating New Evidence on Employment Effects

    January 2013 ["4622","4623"]

    The fierce political debate over raising the minimum wage, which is repeated yearly in legislatures across the country, has at times been matched by a strong academic debate on the subject. Specifically, economists have argued over whether a higher minimum wage reduces the employment of less-skilled jobseekers. The published research on the subject points overwhelmingly in one direction: A summary of the last two decades…
  • The Impact of a $9.80 Federal Minimum Wage

    July 2012

    Congress is considering a series of proposals to raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage. The “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012,” to be introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), which would raise the federal minimum wage by 35 percent to $9.80 and index it for inflation; The “Rebuild America Act,” introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), which would raise the…
  • Can Raising the Minimum Wage Reduce Poverty and Hardship?

    April 2012 ["4568","4635"]

    In 2011, the Census Bureau reported that the country’s poverty rate was 15.1 percent—the highest rate in nearly 20 years. One policy prescription for this problem is an increase in the federal minimum wage. It’s an intuitive thought: Raise the wages of the lowest paid workers, and poverty rates are sure to fall. Unfortunately, the empirical evidence hasn’t borne this out. Instead, multiple studies have…
  • Tip Credits and Employment in the U.S. Restaurant Industry

    November 2011 ["4573","4574"]

    Few parts of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are more poorly understood than provisions relating to tipped employees. Though the federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 an hour, the FLSA permits tipped employees to be paid a cash wage of $2.13 an hour—so long as the employee earns at least the federal minimum of $7.25 when their tips are included. The difference between…
  • An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Estimating the Coverage Effects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act

    July 2011 ["4641","4642","4643"]

    Proponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the companion Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, known collectively as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , expect that the law will substantially expand health insurance coverage to the 17.6 percent of currently uninsured, non-elderly working Americans, without dramatically changing the terms under which the currently insured now receive their health insurance. Conversely,…