TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract The minimum wage has been regarded as an important element of public policy for reducing poverty and inequality. Increasing the minimum wage is supposed to raise earnings for millions of low-wage workers and therefore lower earnings inequality. However, there is no consensus in the existing literature from industrialized countries regarding whether increasing the minimum wage has helped lower earnings inequality. China has recently exhibited rapid economic growth and widening earnings inequality. Since China promulgated new minimum wage regulations in 2004, the magnitude and frequency of changes in the minimum wage have been substantial, both over time and across jurisdictions. The growing importance of research on the relationship between the minimum wage and earnings inequality and its controversial nature have sparked heated debate in China, highlighting the importance of rigorous research to inform evidence-based policy making. We investigate the contribution of the minimum wage to the well-documented rise in earnings inequality in China from 2004 to 2009 by using city-level minimum wage panel data and a representative Chinese household survey, and we find that increasing the minimum wage reduces inequality – by decreasing the earnings gap between the median and the bottom decile – over the analysis period.
VL  - 44
SN  - 978-1-78560-943-5, 978-1-78560-944-2/0147-9121
DO  - 10.1108/S0147-912120160000044012
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-912120160000044012
AU  - Lin Carl
AU  - Yun Myeong-Su
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 2016/01/01
TI  - The Effects of the Minimum Wage on Earnings Inequality: Evidence from China
T2  - Income Inequality Around the World
T3  - Research in Labor Economics
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 179
EP  - 212
Y2  - 2024/04/23
ER  -