Living Wage Legislation
Abstract
The following project is a requirement for graduation from Kalamazoo College.
The first part of the project focuses on a research issue. Poverty is becoming a major
concern in the United States. However, poverty is not stemming from a lack of jobs, but
a lack of high paying jobs. Local governments are trying to create ways to correct this
problem.
Living wage laws are a new policy tool used by municipalities to effectively
increase income for low wage earners. This project attempted to find the causes that
would lead municipalities within Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) to employ living
wage legislation, and explore a cost/benefit analysis of their effects.
The second part of the project was an in-depth empirical analysis of poverty and
living wage legislation. Using United States Census data and data collected by Dr.
Hannah McKinney, professor of Economics at Kalamazoo College, it was found that
living wage laws have no real employment effects in MSAs. However, through .logistical
regression analysis, social stresses increased the probability of living wage
implementation in MSAs. These factors pertained to crime rates, educational attainment,
fluency in English, and labor market characteristics.