Impact of Minimum Wages Upon the Level and Composition of Agricultural Employment

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of minimum wages on agrieultural employment in the southern U. S. The prineipal result was that the introduetion of minimum wages decreased the employment of hired and total (hired plus family) labor. Esthnates of employment reduetion of hired labor due to minimum wages are provided.

Effects on Farm Incomes and Rural Labour of a Relative Increase in Wages*

“…and U K. Similar models to the ones outlined be!ow which have been uscd in the U.S. can he 'cund in Griliches 1111, Schuli [ 1 9 , Wallice arid Hoover [ 1 9 ] . Rauer [ I ] , 'Tyrcitnicwicz and Schuh [lS], G x d n e r [9] and Liainos [13]. Ir, ihe il K. t h e are t!ie studies by Cowling The equations were also estimated with fixed-weight Fisher lags on the real price variables.…”

Effects of Minimum Wages on Youth Employment: the Importance of Accounting for Spatial Correlation

“…A very early time series study of the effects of minimum wages on employment (Lianos 1972) analyzed the effect of the federal minimum wage on farm labor and found that the minimum wage increased farm wages and decreased farm employment as expected. To minimize the bias due to unobserved geographic factors, this study focused on the south and used regional wage measures to account for geographic differences.…”

Determinants of the demand for regular farm labour in South Africa, 1960–2002

“…Behar (2004) estimated the price elasticity of demand for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the SA manufacturing sector as -0.65 and -0.8 respectively, while Fedderke and Mariotti (2002:860) report a wage elasticity of demand estimate for the SA manufacturing sector of about -0.5. Lianos (1972) estimated the price elasticity of demand for hired farm labour in the United States (US) as -1.37, while Gardner (1972) estimated a figure for the US of -1.4.…”

“…A relative increase in the cost of labour motivates farmers to replace labour with machinery, machinery contractors, labour contractors or new technologies that are labour-saving. This in turn can lead to considerable unemployment if the demand for labour is very price elastic (Lianos, 1972;Conradie, 2005), and output will fall as production costs increase (Burton et al, 1970).…”