Minimum Wages, Wages, and Price Pass-Through: The Case of McDonald's Restaurants

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ashenfelter, Orley; Jurajda, Stepan
• 署名单位: Princeton University; Czech Academy of Sciences; Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences; Charles University Prague
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/718190
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: S179-S201
• 关键词: employment; industry

摘要

Based on 2016-20 hourly wage rates of McDonald's basic crew and Big Mac prices collected simultaneously from almost all US McDonald's, we find that in 25% of instances of minimum wage increases, restaurants keep constant their wage premium above the increasing minimum wage. Higher minimum wages are not associated with faster adoption of touch-screen ordering, and there is near-full price pass-through of minimum wages. Minimum wage hikes lead to increases in real wages (expressed as how many Big Macs 1 hour of basic crew work can buy) that are one-fifth lower than the corresponding increases in nominal wages.