Full Citation
Title: The Impacts of Agricultural Minimum Wage on US Agricultural Employment
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: Over the past 30 years, agricultural employers have been required to pay their workers at least a minimum wage, called the Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs). These wage rates were established to protect the American workforce from any adverse effects potentially caused by foreign workers, but its economic effects on labor markets are not yet explored. By using the Temporary Agricultural Worker data from the US Department of Labor (DOL) along with the 2005-2019 American Community Survey (ACS), I assess the impact of the AEWRs on US agricultural employment and on different groups of farmworkers. The AEWR policy leads to reduction in agricultural employment, especially for less-educated workers. The estimation results also indicate that the AEWRs have a negative relationship with the employment of less-educated domestic non-Hispanic Whites and unauthorized workers, but a positive relationship with the employment of less-educated domestic Hispanics and foreign workers (H-2A workers). However, the jobs left by one group are not sufficiently filled by the other groups. This finding suggests that the AEWRs tend to shorten job opportunities especially for domestic agricultural workers which is unintended consequence of the AEWR policy
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Authors: Paik, SongYi
Conference Name: 2023 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association Annual Meeting
Publisher Location: Washington DC
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure
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