Historical state and sub-state minimum wage data

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Authors:

Kavya Vaghul, Research Analyst, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Ben Zipperer, Research Economist, Washington Center for Equitable Growth

Abstract:

We introduce datasets of historical state and sub-state minimum wage levels for the United States. From these daily minimum wage increases, we create state and sub-state panels at daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual frequencies. The state datasets span May 1974 to July 2016 and the sub-state datasets include city and county changes from January 2004 to July 2016. Estimating teen wage and employment elasticities using the state data generate very similar estimates to those estimated using minimum wage data from other recent papers. For the most recent version of these data and the code that produces them, see our Github page.

Or for a direct download of the state and sub-state data releases, see the links in the right-hand column.