THE IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN

doi:10.1111/j.1465-7287.2006.00026.x

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Wiley InterScience

Contemporary Economic Policy

Volume 25 Issue 1, Pages 107 - 118

Published Online: 18 Jul 2008

A Journal of the Western Economic Association International

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THE IMPACT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN

DAIJI KAWAGUCHI ¹ and KEN YAMADA ^2,*

¹ Kawaguchi: Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Naka 2-1, Kunitachi, Tokyo, 186-8601, Japan. Phone 81-42-580-8851, Fax 81-42-580-8882, E-mail kawaguch@econ.hit-u.ac.jp; Visiting Scholar, Department of Economics, UC Berkeley, 549 Evans Hall #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
² Yamada: Research Student, Department of Economics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. Phone 44-20-7679-5568, Fax 44-20-7916-2775, E-mail ken.yamada@ucl.ac.uk

*The Japan Panel Survey of Consumers (Shōhi Seikatsu ni Kansuru Paneru Chōsa), published by the Institute for Research on Household Economics (Kakei Keizai Kenkyūsho), is used in this study. The authors thank the institute for providing the data. Due to a confidentiality agreement with the institute, these data cannot be released; however, interested researchers can apply to use the data by contacting the institute. The authors thank two anonymous referees and the seminar participants at the Kansai Institute of Social and Economic Research for their comments. They also thank Miki Kohara and Nobuko Nagase for sending their unpublished papers. The authors also thank Donna Maurer for editorial assistance. This research is supported by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (Youth (B) 16730161).

ABSTRACT

This article examines the impact of the minimum wage on employment, focusing on women in their 20s and 30s, who are known to be typical low-wage workers in Japan. The results, based on a panel estimation, suggest that the minimum wage has a measurable impact on employment; the workers whose current wage is below the revised minimum wage are about 20–30 percentage points less likely to be employed in the following year than comparable low-wage workers who are not affected by the revision of the minimum wage. The estimation results are sensitive to the choice of the control group. (JEL J23, J38, J88)

Received: 22 September 2006;

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1465-7287.2006.00026.x About DOI