The impact of minimum wages on wages and employment: evidence from Greece

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of minimum wages on wages and employment in Greece between 2009 and 2017. Our main contribution is the examination of the effects of minimum wages under a dramatically changing context, as during this period Greece has experienced the deepest recession in its recent history, extensive labour market reforms, and several changes in the minimum wage, including a large decrease. Employing a unique administrative panel matched employer-employee data set and a range of estimators, such as difference-in-differences, fixed effects, and Instrumental Variables, we find that minimum wages have a positive and significant effect on individual and firm-level wages with significant positive wage spill-overs extending, sometimes, above the median wage, but no systematic employment effects.