World Bank learning event – Minimum Wage Policies, Interventions and Impacts

Minimum wages are an important policy instrument with both macroeconomic and microeconomic consequences; and several countries, including China, Mexico, Poland, to name a few, are currently discussing changes to minimum wage policy.  During the two-day learning event organized at the World Bank, experts presented on minimum wages and impacts in OECD countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and East Asia.  The discussions included an overview of minimum wage policy in the OECD and their impacts; the ability (or not) of minimum wages to reduce poverty and inequality; the dangers of exclusion of particular groups from participation in (formal) employment; minimum wage in the context of employment protection and contractual forms; the how-to of setting a minimum wage level; and the politics of minimum wage reform.   Piotr Lewandowski contributed to the session on minimum wage in the context of employment protection and contractual forms, by discussing the recent policy proposals on how to expand the minimum wage coverage to non-standard employment forms in Poland.   Several other experts presented during the workshop. Andrea Garnero of the OECD discussed the minimum wage in the context of other policies, particularly tax and social benefit systems. Prof. Tim Gindling of the University of Maryland presented the experience of the application of the minimum wage to fight poverty and income inequality in Latin America. Prof. Haroon Bhorat of the University of Cape Town discussed the use of the minimum wage in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ximena Del Carpio and Laura Pabon from the World Bank presented practical advice for policymakers how to set the minimum wage, and Truman Packard of the World Bank focused on political aspects around the minimum wage.

• May 24, Part 1 – video broadcasts
• May 25, Part 2 – video broadcasts