Employment and Hours Impacts of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage in Northern Ireland

This paper examines the employment and hours impacts of the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the 2016 introduction of the UK National Living Wage (NLW) in Northern Ireland (NI). Because NI is a... [ view full abstract ]

This paper examines the employment and hours impacts of the 1999 introduction of the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the 2016 introduction of the UK National Living Wage (NLW) in Northern Ireland (NI). Because NI is a relatively low-wage region of the UK we might expect minimum wages to have more impact on employment and hours in NI than in other parts of the UK. NI is also the only part of the UK with a land border – the border between NI and the Republic of Ireland – where the NMW and NLW cover those working on one side of the border but not those working on the other side of the border. This discontinuity in minimum wage coverage enables a research design that estimates the impacts of the NMW and NLW by comparing changes in employment and hours north and south of the border around the time of the NMW and NLW introductions.