Abstract
This study investigates the manner in which increases in the minimum wage have altered the distribution of employment and the sensitivity to short-run changes of employment among states in the United States. Further, by focusing on the distribution of employment and on how that distribution changes over the seasonal cycle, estimates of some aspects of the impact of the minimum wage that have not heretofore been analyzed have been developed. The evidence indicates that increases in the minimum wage over the period 1947–1976 have had a significant impact on employment patterns. Minimum-wage legislation has had the effect of decreasing the share of projected employment and increasing vulnerability to cyclical changes in employment for the group of workers most marginal to the work force—low-wage employees.
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