• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.107-131
• /
• 2018

This paper presents a model for the Minimum Wage Commission's decision process and analyzes the strategic actions of the participants in the process. The Minimum Wage Commission has used two ways of setting the minimum wage. The commission has voted either on the labor's against the management' final proposals or has voted on the public interest commissioners' proposal. According to the model, the minimum wage is determined at a level that is very close to or at a level preferred by the median voter among the public interest commissioners. But the probability of adopting labor or management proposal is ex-ante the same. Empirical evidence from the minimum wage decision process is consistent with the predictions of the model. The probability of adopting the labor's proposal in the minimum wage commission voting is not statistically significantly different from 50%. The model also suggests that the preference of the median voter among public interest commissioners determines the minimum wage level. Since the government appoints public interest commissioners and thus, in fact, the median voters, the government can decide the minimum wage level. This proposition is also consistent with data. The annual growth rate of the minimum wage under the progressive governments is higher than under conservative governments.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2023

Purpose: As an important provision to protect the rights and interests of low-income groups, it is worth studying whether the minimum wage policy can improve the quality of life for people. Research design, data and methodology: Using data from the 2015 and 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS), this paper employs the logit model to estimate the probability of an individual's annual income being higher than the per capita disposable income of their province. It also utilizes the DID model to analyze the impact of minimum wage increases on individuals' annual incomes. Results: The analysis reveals that an overall increase in the minimum wage raises the probability of an individual's annual income exceeding the per capita disposable income by 3%. Among them, the probability increased by 2.2% for males and by 3.2% for females. Furthermore, the impact of the minimum wage on annual income varies depending on the individual's income level. Notably, the most positive and significant impact is observed for individuals whose income level is close to the minimum wage standard. Conclusions: This provides evidence that the increase in the minimum wage has effectively improved the quality of life for the population.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.73-101
• /
• 2021

Employing bunching estimators of Cengiz et al. (2019) for data from the "Economically Active Population Survey," this paper estimates the effect of minimum wage increases on the volume of waged employment for the period 2009-2019. A bunching estimator, which exploits yearly changes in the hourly wage distribution due to the minimum wage hike, can be easily applied to the Korean labor market, which adopts the yearly single national minimum wage. The estimation results suggest that an increase in the annual minimum wage during the period from 2009 to 2019 had a negative effect on the volume of waged employment. A 10% increase in the (real) minimum wage leads to a 1.42~1.74% decrease in the volume of waged employment. Disemployment effects of minimum wage hikes are greater in the sector with a higher proportion of minimum wage workers. It is necessary to carefully consider disemployment effects in determining the level of the minimum wage.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.63-99
• /
• 2019

This paper estimates the effect of the minimum wage increment on employment and work-hour of new workers in Korea using the data from the Survey on Labor Conditions by Type of Employment (SLCTE) from 2008 to 2017. We construct worker groups by sex, age, and education to mitigate endogeneity problem in estimating the effect of minimum wage increment. The result shows that the minimum wage increment leads to decrease of new employment and increase of the ratio of new workers who work less than 15 hours per week. Especially, women, the elderly, the youth, and under high school education level group are sensitive to the minimum wage increment.

• East Asian Economic Review
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.99-121
• /
• 2021

This paper investigates the relationship between the minimum wage and firm's export behavior by using firm-level data of Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises over the period 2010 through 2015. In this regard, I apply the logistic regression model for the probability of exporting and the differences-in-differences analysis to the data, and find that raising minimum wage standards drive no new exporters but a rise in a firm's export sales. Less productive and more labor-intensive firms raise their amount of exports in response to increasing minimum wage levels. Being exposed to increasing minimum wage levels makes a firm under-perform in terms of export sales compared to non-exposed firms.

• Economic Analysis
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.1-33
• /
• 2020

Recent discussions about a minimum wage increase (MWI) and its influence on the economy have mainly focused on the quantitative aspects, such as labor costs and employment. However, concerning the qualitative aspects, an MWI could have positive effects by enhancing firm productivity and crowding out marginal firms from the market. These positive effects of an MWI can offset, to some extent, its potential negative effects - increasing labor costs and decreasing employment, among others. In this regard we empirically examine the impact of an MWI on firm productivity (total factor productivity). Using firm level panel data from the manufacturing industry in Korea, we calculate the influence rates of a minimum wage by sector and by firm size (number of workers), and analyze its effects on firm productivity. In particular, the production functions of the firms are estimated by taking into account endogeneity among the input factors, in order to resolve the drawbacks of existing studies - underestimating the capital factor coefficient and overestimating the labor factor coefficient. This study finds that the influences of an MWI on wages, employment, and productivity are substantially different across sectors and firm sizes. While an MWI has shown to have positive influences on productivity growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole, each sector demonstrates a different direction of effect, and the degree of productivity change also varies by sector. The impacts of an MWI on firm productivity are generally estimated to be more negative for smaller firms, but in some sectors the effects are found to be positive. In addition, the wage increases resulting from an MWI seem to cause a productivity enhancement across all sectors in the manufacturing industry. The policy implications of this study are as follows. Considering the empirical findings that an MWI causes an increase in productivity in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, it would be desirable to take into consideration not only the negative side effects but also the positive effects of an MWI when designing any future minimum wage policy. Moreover, in spite of there being a uniform minimum wage, this study finds that the diverse influence rates of a minimum wage across firms have different impacts on wages, employment, and productivity across sectors or firm size. This finding could be conducive to discussions about differentiation among minimum wage schemes by sector or firm size.

• Convergence Security Journal
• /
• v.16 no.6_2
• /
• pp.3-22
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this paper is to study ways to improve the welfare of private security guards. For this reason, it was analyzed the actual situation of the private security guards' wage and welfare system. As a result of the analysis, the most important factors that affect the wages and welfare system of private security guards was such as contracting costs, the minimum wage level, professional duties. In particular, a private security guards have been recognized as the most low-level professionalism sorted by the simple laborers standard classification. Wages of guards in accordance with this recognition is only about 47% of major company on average, about 80% of the small business average. If the proposed future improvements include: First, we need to improve the professionalism of a private security. Second, It is established a mutual-aid project about private security guards. Third, It shall regulate the wage of private security guards on Private Security Industry Act. Fourth, we should adopt a selective welfare system.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2023

In order to carry out construction work, it is urgent to introduce a proper wage system so that the cost burden of projects that have been won due to bleeding competition among original government buildings based on low-priced bids can be transferred to subcontractors. Purpose: Construction with illegal multi-level industrial structure needs to improve the wage reduction environment leading to order (100%) → original contractor (80%) → subcontractor (65%) → load contractor (65%) and aims to ensure wages for end workers. Method: Investigate the current status of labor cost appropriate payment plan in the construction industry, and investigate the case of the appropriate wage system (P.W) in the United States. In addition, the effect and direction of the appropriate wage system are presented. Result: Individual minimum wage security was also mentioned in the Constitution, and many researchers suggested that only the introduction of an appropriate wage system could solve the problem of reducing worker labor and ensure quality and safety. Conclusion: The proper wage system in the construction industry will block illegal multi-level and illegal foreign work, improve the labor environment in the construction market, create an influx of young workers, and have a significant impact on the construction industry's competitive structure, safety, and quality.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.11 no.7
• /
• pp.207-216
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors contributing to the wage inequality between employment of persons with disabilities. Among the raw data provided by the Korea Employment Development institute for persons with disabilities, 3,546 cases were studied, excluding cases in which major variables were missing, in the 『2018 survey on the employment status of the disabled in business』. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 25 and STATA 14 to analyze wage inequality among employment companies for persons with disabilities. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 25 and STATA 14 to analyze wage inequality in employment companies for persons with disabilities. The study found that factors contributing to the wage inequality in employment companies for the disabled include 'minimum level of education'12.63%, 'asset level'6.37%, 'level of work required'4.87%, 'ratio of female employment'3.30%, 'sales profit'2.33%, 'education training for employees'1.19%, 'labor union membership rate'0.67%, 'work type'0.42%, 'average working hours'0.41%, 'recognition of work level of disabled people'0.34%, 'recognition that employment of disabled people is helpful to companies'0.23%, 'positive recognition of work cost of disabled people'0.17%. Based on these results, this study proposed access at the level of employment business for the disabled, social level, and worker level for the disabled.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 1997

A regional economy is characterized as a spatial economy. However the literature shows that it has been treated as a point economy since space is little recognized in regional modeling due to mathematical complication. This leads to the fact that regional model does not sufficiently represent regional characteristic. This paper attempts to construct a regional growth model in a partial equilibrium framework specifically taking into consideration land as a primary factor. The model is formulated largely neoclassical. Labor is assumed to move in response to differences in the wage rate, while capital is perfectly mobile across regions. The paper shows that two growth equilibrium points exist, one stable equilibrium point and the other unstable equilibrium point. The unstable growth equilibrium indicates the existence of minimum threshold that a region must overcome the minimum threshold to grow constantly. Consequently, directions of regional growth are characterized by two growth paths depending on the initial condition of a region. That is to say, a region below the minimum threshold is converging toward the lower stable equilibrium point over time. When a regional economy initially lies above the minimum threshold, it will grow forever. A regional economy is not thus necessarily converging a stationary is not thus necessarily converging a stationary equilibrium point through factor movement. Finally, the impacts of the presence of agglomeration economies and diseconomies are analyzed through the phase diagram. The paper also shows that agglomeration economies result in lowering the minimum threshold and in escalating the level of stable equilibrium However, when agglomeration diseconomies prevail, the results are opposite, i.e., rising the minimum threshold of growth and lowering the growth level of stable equilibrium.