Minimum Wages and Workplace Injuries

69 Pages Posted: 14 Jan 2025

See all articles by Michael Davies

Michael Davies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

R. Jisung Park

University of Pennsylvania

Anna Stansbury

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management; Peterson Institute for International Economics; IZA

Date Written: December 17, 2024

Abstract

Do minimum wage changes affect workplace health and safety? Using the universe of workers' compensation claims in California over 2000-2019, we estimate whether minimum wage shocks affect the rate of workplace injuries. Our identification exploits both geographic variation in state-and city-level minimum wages and local occupation-level variation in exposure to minimum wage changes. We find that a 10% increase in the minimum wage increases the injury rate by 11% in an occupation-metro area labor market which is fully exposed to the minimum wage increase. Our results imply an elasticity of the workplace injury rate to minimum-wage-induced wage changes of 1.4. We find particularly large effects on injuries relating to cumulative physical strain, suggesting that employers respond to minimum wage increases by intensifying the pace of work, which in turn increases injury risk.

Keywords: minimum wage, labor markets, wages, workplace injuries, health and safety, osha

JEL Classification: J31, J38, J81

Suggested Citation

Davies, Michael and Park, R. Jisung and Stansbury, Anna, Minimum Wages and Workplace Injuries (December 17, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5062047 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5062047

Michael Davies

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

R. Jisung Park

University of Pennsylvania ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Anna Stansbury (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

100 Main Street
E62-416
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States

Peterson Institute for International Economics ( email )

1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

IZA ( email )

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