Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel
This paper provides a first set of results on the impact of minimum wage regulation in Switzerland. We study the effects of an unexpected Supreme Court ruling mandating the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel to enforce a minimum hourly wage of around CHF 20 previously accepted via popular ballot. Given polic...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer International Publishing
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128708 |
| _version_ | 1811068744726740992 |
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| author | Berger, Marius Lanz, Bruno |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change Berger, Marius Lanz, Bruno |
| author_sort | Berger, Marius |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper provides a first set of results on the impact of minimum wage regulation in Switzerland. We study the effects of an unexpected Supreme Court ruling mandating the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel to enforce a minimum hourly wage of around CHF 20 previously accepted via popular ballot. Given policy discontinuity at cantonal borders, we design a two-wave survey of restaurants to measure wages, employment, workers’ characteristics, and prices and administer it in Neuchâtel as well as in geographically proximate districts of neighboring cantons. Our data covers pre- and post-enforcement outcomes for around 100 restaurants, with information for more than 800 employees distributed over two-survey waves. Our data suggest that the proportion of workers paid below minimum wage went down from 19 to 5% after the introduction of the policy. This decline is compensated by a significant increase of the workforce paid just above minimum wage, and our results suggest that restaurants did not use employment as a margin of adjustment. We also find evidence that the policy affected the distribution of hourly wages up to CHF 6 above the minimum wage, with some workers initially paid above minimum wage experiencing a wage increase. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:00:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/128708 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:00:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer International Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1287082024-06-25T23:21:14Z Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel Berger, Marius Lanz, Bruno Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change This paper provides a first set of results on the impact of minimum wage regulation in Switzerland. We study the effects of an unexpected Supreme Court ruling mandating the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel to enforce a minimum hourly wage of around CHF 20 previously accepted via popular ballot. Given policy discontinuity at cantonal borders, we design a two-wave survey of restaurants to measure wages, employment, workers’ characteristics, and prices and administer it in Neuchâtel as well as in geographically proximate districts of neighboring cantons. Our data covers pre- and post-enforcement outcomes for around 100 restaurants, with information for more than 800 employees distributed over two-survey waves. Our data suggest that the proportion of workers paid below minimum wage went down from 19 to 5% after the introduction of the policy. This decline is compensated by a significant increase of the workforce paid just above minimum wage, and our results suggest that restaurants did not use employment as a margin of adjustment. We also find evidence that the policy affected the distribution of hourly wages up to CHF 6 above the minimum wage, with some workers initially paid above minimum wage experiencing a wage increase. 2020-12-01T22:37:58Z 2020-12-01T22:37:58Z 2020-11 2019-08 2020-11-29T04:22:42Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2235-6282 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128708 Berger, Marius and Bruno Lanz. "Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel." Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics 156, 1 (November 2020): 20 © 2020 The Author(s) en https://doi.org/10.1186/s41937-020-00067-5 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) application/pdf Springer International Publishing Springer International Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Berger, Marius Lanz, Bruno Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title | Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title_full | Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title_fullStr | Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title_short | Minimum wage regulation in Switzerland: survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of Neuchâtel |
| title_sort | minimum wage regulation in switzerland survey evidence for restaurants in the canton of neuchatel |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128708 |
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