Jeffrey Clemens: What do economists know about the minimum wage?

While economists form a relatively strong consensus on some policy questions, they certainly don’t agree on everything. One of the more prominent examples of this is the minimum wage. Some studies find large negative employment effects from raising the minimum wage, while others find negligible or even positive effects on employment. And all economists recognize that there are trade-offs at play, but they disagree about whether the benefits of raising the minimum wage outweigh the costs. It’s a complicated question. And because of the Biden administration’s pledge to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s an issue of great relevance. So I’m delighted to discuss it on today’s episode with Jeffrey Clemens.Jeff is an associate professor of economics at the University of California San Diego, where he specializes in public finance, health economics, and labor economics. He is the author of several analyses of the minimum wage, including “The Minimum Wage and the Great Recession: Evidence of Effects on the Employment and Income Trajectories of Low-Skilled Workers” and “The Short-Run Employment Effects Of Recent Minimum Wage Changes: Evidence from the American Community Survey.”