How Do Employers Belonging to Marginalized Communities Respond to Minimum Wage Increases? The Case of Immigrant-Owned Businesses in Seattle.

ABSTRACT: Minimum wage opponents often argue that businesses owned by marginalized communities, which include woman-owned, Black-owned, and immigrant-owned businesses, are exceptionally vulnerable to minimum wage increases. Little research has investigated this claim. Using a unique survey of Seattle businesses that includes owners' nativity status and was administered while the city began to phase in its $15 minimum wage ordinance, the authors find that immigrant-owned businesses respond to the higher minimum wage in ways that largely conform to the responses of other businesses. Nevertheless, immigrant-owned franchises are less likely than other franchises to fire employees, reduce employees' hours, or lower the wages of employees earning more than $15 per hour. Evidence suggests that immig

SUBMITTER: Somashekhar M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11363931 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature