Employer Mandate

• See Employer Mandates under Health Insurance Regulation
• Employer Mandate (search in Health Affairs)
• Employer Mandate (National Center for Policy Analysis)
• Krueger, A. B., and U. E. Reinhardt, The Economics of Employer Versus Individual Mandates, Health Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1994, pp. 34–53.

Effects of Minimum Wage Laws

The effects of employer mandates should be similar to the effects of minimum wage laws insofar as they raise the cost of employment. There is an extensive literature on the economic impact of minimum wage laws:

• How to Keep More Kids on the Streets. Summary of economic literature on the adverse impact of minimum wage laws on youth/low-skilled unemployment.
• Political Calculations. Can Increasing the Minimum Wage Boost GDP?
• Sabia, Joseph J., Richard V. Burkhauser and Benjamin Hansen. “Are the Effects of Minimum Wage Increases Always Small? New Evidence from a Case Study of New York State.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review.The NYS minimum wage increase is associated with a 20.2 to 21.8 percent reduction in the employment of younger less-educated individuals, with the largest effects for those ages 16-to-24.Our results provide plausible evidence that state minimum wage increases can have substantial adverse labor demand effects for low-skilled individuals that are outside the consensus elasticity range of -0.1 to -0.3.
• John Schmitt. Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? Center for Economic and Policy Research, February 2013.
• Mark Wilson. The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws. Cato Institute, Policy Analysis No. 701, June 21, 2012. The federal government has imposed a minimum wage since 1938, and nearly all the states impose their own minimum wages. These laws prevent employers from paying wages below a mandated level. While the aim is to help workers, decades of economic research show that minimum wages usually end up harming workers and the broader economy. Minimum wages particularly stifle job opportunities for low-skill workers, youth, and minorities, which are the groups that policymakers are often trying to help with these policies. There is no “free lunch” when the government mandates a minimum wage. If the government requires that certain workers be paid higher wages, then businesses make adjustments to pay for the added costs, such as reducing hiring, cutting employee work hours, reducing benefits, and charging higher prices. Some policymakers may believe that companies simply absorb the costs of minimum wage increases through reduced profits, but that’s rarely the case. Instead, businesses rationally respond to such mandates by cutting employment and making other decisions to maintain their net earnings. These behavioral responses usually offset the positive labor market results that policymakers are hoping for. This study reviews the economic models used to understand minimum wage laws and examines the empirical evidence. It describes why most of the academic evidence points to negative effects from minimum wages, and discusses why some studies may produce seemingly positive results. Some federal and state policymakers are currently considering increases in minimum wages, but such policy changes would be particularly damaging in today’s sluggish economy. Instead, federal and state governments should focus on policies that generate faster economic growth, which would generate rising wages and more opportunities for all workers.