Who Gets Minimum Wages?

Abstract

There have been rising levels of inequality in the earnings distribution in some OECD countries (principally the English-speaking ones), together with stub bornly high levels of unemployment in many others. Australia has shared in the increases in earnings inequality and persistent unemployment. The increasing earnings inequality has led to renewed interest in the usefulness of legally binding minimum wages as an instrument for redressing it. The high unemployment has led to a renewed interest in removing restrictions on what employers must pay, in the hope that this will increase employment. This paper provides the first detailed examination of the low- wage group in Australia and its standing in the distribution of household equivalent income. It finds that low-wage workea s are varied in their socioeconomic characteristics. They are not typically new entrants to the labour force. They look very like all wage earners in their age distribution. A majority work full-time and are married; 40 per cent have dependent children. Most live in lower income households, but many do not. A cut in low wages that focuses on those around the Australian Industrial Relations Commission minimum would be regressive. The circumstances necessary to make the gain to the unemployed exceed the losses to low-wage workers who have a low income appear to be quite implausible.