The Potential Impact of the Minimum Wage in Rural Areas

This article explores the extent to which the potential impact of the national minimum wage might differ in rural areas. Using pre-1999 data from the British Household Panel Survey, a number of dimensions of the policy's potential impact in rural areas are considered, in particular, the number of workers affected, their typical characteristics, and the effects on pay inequality and household income distribution. The results show that for the majority of rural areas that are accessible to urban labour markets, the impact is likely to be broadly similar. In contrast, the potential impacts, and particularly the distributional effects, of the national minimum wage are found to be greatest in remoter rural areas.