The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the visibility of economic inequality and the inadequacy of current minimum wage laws in the United States. Changes in the minimum wage, a living wage, or just employment practices may be compelled by law or voluntarily enacted by employers. A literature search failed to yield a concise and practical tool to…

This is a congressional hearing to examine S. 2687, the Youth Employment Opportunity Wage Act. (This bill would permit employers to pay youth a wage of 75 percent of the statutory minimum wage during the summer. The bill has a sunset provision.) Testimony includes statements from U.S. Senators and Representatives and from individuals representing…

This Congressional report contains the testimony given at a hearing pertaining to passage of the Youth Employment Opportunity Wage Act of 1985. (The act, which would terminate in September 1987, would authorize an employer to pay a subminimum, "youth employment opportunity wage" to a person under 20 years of age.) Included among those…

The article describes the payment mechanisms currently available to reimburse workers with severe disabilities for work performed. The advantages and disadvantages of competitive employment at or above minimum wage, competitive employment below minimum wage, contracted employment through a rehabilitation agency, and self-employment are discussed.…

It is the thesis of this booklet, one of a series intended to apply economic principles to major social and political issues of the day, that minimum wage laws actually hurt those whom such laws are designed to help. From this point of departure, separate subsections examine economic implications of minimum wage laws, including discussion of what…

The book is designed to explain the entire Fair Labor Standards Act. The 1974 amendments are detailed regarding new and previously covered employees, agricultural labor, government employees, domestics, conglomerates, small stores, other revisions, overtime exemptions, and age discrimination. The document elaborates on specifications for overtime…

A seminar was held to examine the merits and feasibility of a subminimum wage for youth. Throughout the seminar panelists expressed general agreement on the fact that most youth want to work as well as on the value or potential value of employment and training programs, including the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programs. In…

This publication contains the original text of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 with revisions effected by twenty-three Amendments. (Different typefaces are used to represent the original text and subsequent amendments grouped as pre-1961, 1961, 1966, 1972, 1974, and 1977.) Sections covered in the Act include minimum wages, maximum workweek…

Includes "Introduction" (Ehrenberg); "Effect of the Minimum Wage [MW] on the Fast-Food Industry" (Katz, Krueger); "Using Regional Variation in Wages to Measure Effects of the Federal MW" (Card); "Do MWs Reduce Employment?" (Card); "Employment Effects of Minimum and Subminimum Wages" (Neumark,…

Without an increase in five years, minimum wage workers, 60 percent of whom are women, have experienced a sharp decline in real earnings. Over seventeen million Americans fall outside the federal provision and rely on inadequate state standards. Overtime and tipping laws are discussed. Social costs of maintaining the "working poor" outweigh…

Using a specially constructed panel data set on state minimum wage laws and labor market conditions, Neumark and Wascher (1992) presented evidence that countered the claim that minimum wages could be raised with no cost to employment. They concluded that estimates indicating that minimum wages reduced employment on the order of 1-2 percent for a…

Women earn only 64 cents for every dollar earned by men. Five and a half million women number among the "working poor." The following are suggested for change: (1) raise the minimum wage; (2) institute gender- and race-blind pay scales; (3) establish child care centers; and (4) enforce anti-discrimination laws. (PS)

Differences in the level of total compensation paid to individuals--known as "compensating differences"--reflect the market valuation of services offered, skills involved in delivery of services, and difficulty in acquiring those skills. Differences in the composition of the compensation package reflect the needs and circumstances of the…

The desirability of raising the minimum wage long revolved around just one question: the effect of higher minimum wages on the overall level of employment. An even more critical effect of the minimum wage rests on the composition of employment--who gets the minimum wage job. An examination of employment in eating and drinking establishments…