Discussion Paper

The potential economic impact of increasing the minimum wage in New Hampshire

Abstract: This paper estimates the potential economic impact of New Hampshire?s new state minimum wage law on the state?s aggregate employment and wages. According to the analysis, the minimum wage increase would raise the wages of 26,000 workers in the state and would have a negative impact on employment ranging from 300 to 1,500 jobs, which is between 1 percent and 6 percent of workers directly affected by the law. On net, the combined impact of both stages of the increase would raise aggregate wages by approximately $17.4 million. The analysis here focuses on workers with hourly wages between $5.15 and $7.25 and does not examine the impact of the bill on tipped employees, whose new hourly wage rate will be set at 45 percent of the state minimum wage.

Keywords: Minimum wage - New Hampshire;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Part of Series: New England Public Policy Center Discussion Paper

Publication Date: 2007

Number: 07-2