Minimum Wage Protection in Industrialized Countries: Recent Experience and Issues for the Future Available to Purchase

Minimum wage fixing came to be increasingly questioned during the 1980s owing to high unemployment and the rise of liberal economic thinking. This led many countries to dilute minimum wage protection by freezing the rates or altering the coverage. However, close examination of the relevant research reveals that empirical support for the criticisms of minimum wages is fairly weak and fragmented. At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, many countries, Great Britain being a notable exception, pursued a more active minimum wage policy. Concludes with a re‐examination of the goals and form of minimum wage legislation in the light of recent history.