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Recent studies of the French experience find a small, negative impact of the minimum wage on young persons′ employment, a finding which has led to a political debate over the role of sub‐minimum wage rates for youths. The current study initially aimed simply to update previous work. However, the employment series for young persons has been revised in a non‐negligible manner and the results obtained show that the impact of the minimum wage is far less robust than previously thought. The desirability of sub‐minimum rates for young persons would appear questionable.

A recent analysis of wages has shown that within the productive structure of the French economy a two‐fold process of factor substitution is under way, namely the substition of capital for labour and of non‐manual for manual workers. By the logic of neo‐classical distribution theory, the relative price of manual labour should be increasing as its marginal productivity rises. But computations which we have carried out for the French economy between 1949 and 1973 yield the opposite result: the relative price of labour has fallen steadily over the period. The aim of this article is to attempt to explain how much of this decreasing trend is attributable to changes in the structure of the active population and how much is due to changes in the structure of the prices of labour. For this purpose, and following the work of Phelps Brown and Sheila Hopkins, we have calculated an index reflecting the relationship between the index of manual workers' wage rates and the index of national income per head of the occupied population. This relationship represents what is usually referred to as the “wage‐income ratio”. (WIR), with the difference that, in this case, it is limited to wage rates in the private sector. Changes in the index of the WIR can be regarded as reflecting changes in the relative index of a unit of labour if it is accepted that the index of income per head of the occupied population itself can be interpreted as an index of the price of productive factors. This hypothesis is accepted by Phelps Brown and S. Hopkins: “the wage‐income ratio gives us the rate of exchange of a unit of wage‐earners' work, not against quantities of produce but against quantities of other factors”.

The effects of the minimum wage on employment in Western economies are relatively uncontroversial. The introduction of a minimum wage in Czechoslovakia at the start of the transition, and its increase one year later, gives the opportunity to evaluate to what extent its effects on employment seem to have been comparable to those known for market economies. In order to go further than the measure of direct effects on employment, estimates and simulates a small‐scale macro‐econometric model over the period February 1991 to September 1992, which takes into account the feedback effects of the direct change in employment through other macroeconomic variables. These feedback effects seem to accentuate the increase in the level of employment generated by a fall in the minimum wage by two‐thirds after a term.

Analyses the effect of a minimum wage on unemployment. Using a model with covered and non‐covered sectors, comparative static analysis is performed with respect to the elasticity of demand for labour in the covered sector, the elasticity of the wage in the non‐covered sector with respect to the size of the non‐covered sector labour force, and the size of the minimum wage. It turns out, contrary to the existing literature, that for none of these parameters is the comparative static effect unidirectional.

Examines the extent of low pay in Britain, first by estimating a Lorenz curve and, second, by using a logistic regression approach. Low pay is defined in terms of the first three deciles of the income distribution for all workers. The data are taken from the 1986 Social and Economic Life Survey of 6,110 individuals in six local labour markets using a matched employer‐employee sample. Gender is the most important variable but women, as men, can improve their relative positions by acquiring human capital. Variables inducing upward mobility are much the same – regardless of position in the wage structure.

Looks at the role of the minimum in wage setting and how it differs among countries and over time. Discusses the differing attributes of minimum wages and their pluses and minuses.

Minimum wage fixing came to be increasingly questioned during the 1980s owing to high unemployment and the rise of liberal economic thinking. This led many countries to dilute minimum wage protection by freezing the rates or altering the coverage. However, close examination of the relevant research reveals that empirical support for the criticisms of minimum wages is fairly weak and fragmented. At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, many countries, Great Britain being a notable exception, pursued a more active minimum wage policy. Concludes with a re‐examination of the goals and form of minimum wage legislation in the light of recent history.

Briefly identifies the different Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Organization pertaining to national wage policy matters. Introduces some of the issues which need study when considering the social and economic effects of minimum wages, outlining the different roles that minimum wage fixing seeks to achieve. Concludes by considering some of the broader issues relating to labour standards, low pay and competitiveness. Argues that, in a market environment where competition is based increasingly on process and product development, a low‐pay strategy concentrating on the price of labour – and not on research and development and product design and quality – will be deficient. Suggests that economic innovation and dynamism cannot be derived from making labour cheaper, but by rendering it more productive, and that, to achieve this, a national general minimum floor to wages and other terms and conditions of employment are necessary.

Examines the employment effects of minimum wage regulation on Greek manufacturing for the period 1962‐87. The empirical analysis is carried out in three steps. First, estimates the effect of the minimum wage on the average wages of adult male and female industrial workers to derive estimates of wage elasticities of each type of labour with respect to the minimum wage. Second, estimates labour demand equations for the two types of labour to derive the employment elasticities with respect to the corresponding average wage. Finally, provides estimates on the employment effects of the minimum wage by combining the results derived in the first two stages. The results provide some indications that the minimum wage plays a more significant role in the employment of female than male workers in manufacturing, and suggest that minimum wages positively affect the average real wage of both types of workers examined.

Existing research concerning the impact of unions on relative wages provides evidence for the existence of significant union/non‐union wage differentials. However, union practices are deemed to have a more pervasive effect on the overall distribution of wages, reducing wage differentials across and within establishments. Attempts to explore union effects on wage dispersion in the context of the Italian labour market. Several indicators of wage dispersion are computed, using both industry and establishment level data, in the attempt to ascertain the different routes through which union presence affects the structure of wages. The empirical evidence shows that Italian trade unions have pursued “egalitarian” objectives and have succeeded in shaping pay policies which, through central and local negotiations, raise low wages and reduce wage differentials both among skill categories and across establishments.