What is a national minimum wage?

It is a legally enforced floor below which employers may not pay, usually set as an hourly rate and often varying with the worker's age. It is a price floor applied to the labour market. It binds only where the market wage would otherwise be below it, so it affects low-paying sectors while leaving better-paid work untouched. Its purpose is to raise the pay of the lowest earners and to limit the ability of employers to exploit weak bargaining power.

Draw and describe the effect of a minimum wage set above the market-clearing level in a competitive labour market.

Put the wage rate in £ per hour on the vertical axis and the quantity of labour on the horizontal. Draw a downward-sloping labour demand curve and an upward-sloping labour supply curve crossing at the market-clearing wage. Draw the minimum wage as a horizontal line above that intersection. At this higher wage the quantity of labour demanded contracts back along the demand curve to the left, while the quantity supplied extends along the supply curve to the right. The horizontal distance between those two points is excess supply of labour, which is unemployment in the covered sector, and employment settles at the smaller, demand-side quantity.

In a low-paid sector the market-clearing wage is £9.00 per hour with 1,000 workers employed. A minimum wage of £10.50 cuts the quantity of labour demanded to 940 and raises the quantity supplied to 1,120. Calculate the excess supply of labour.

Excess supply is the quantity supplied minus the quantity demanded at the imposed wage: 1,120 minus 940 = 180 workers. Employment itself falls from 1,000 to 940, a loss of 60 jobs, while an extra 120 workers are drawn into the market by the higher pay but cannot find work there. The figure of 180 therefore measures the total number wanting work in the sector and unable to get it, not the number who lost their jobs.

A minimum wage of £10.50 per hour replaces a market-clearing wage of £9.00 in a low-paid sector, and employment falls from 1,000 workers to 940. Calculate the elasticity of demand for labour in this sector.

The wage rises by £10.50 minus £9.00 = £1.50, so the percentage change is £1.50 ÷ £9.00 × 100 = 16.67%, rounded to two decimal places. Employment falls by 1,000 minus 940 = 60 workers, a change of -60 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = -6%. Elasticity of demand for labour = -6 ÷ 16.67 = -0.36, rounded to two decimal places. Because the value lies between 0 and minus 1, demand for labour in this sector is inelastic.

A low-paid sector employs 1,000 workers at a market-clearing wage of £9.00 per hour. A minimum wage of £10.50 reduces employment to 940. Calculate the change in the sector's hourly wage bill.

Before the floor the wage bill is 1,000 × £9.00 = £9,000 per hour. After it is 940 × £10.50 = £9,870 per hour. The change is £9,870 minus £9,000 = an increase of £870 per hour, which is £870 ÷ £9,000 × 100 = 9.67% higher, rounded to two decimal places. The bill rises because demand for labour is inelastic here: employment falls proportionately less than the wage rises, so those keeping their jobs gain more than is saved on the jobs lost.

On what does the size of the job losses caused by a minimum wage depend?

Chiefly on the elasticity of demand for labour in the affected sectors: where wages are a large share of costs, machines can substitute and customers are price sensitive, job losses are larger. Also on how far the floor sits above the wage the market would have set, since a floor below that wage does not bind and costs no jobs at all, one only slightly above it costs very few, and only a floor set well above it costs many. And on whether employers hold monopsony power, on how much productivity improves in response, and on whether firms adjust through prices, profits or hours rather than headcount.

CCEA A-Level Economics 4410

Key Economic Concepts

Topic overview The four factors of production Positive statements and normative judgements Economic agents and what they are trying to achieve Capital goods and consumption goods Product markets and factor markets

The Basic Economic Problem of Scarcity and Choice

Topic overview Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost Drawing and reading the production possibility frontier Using a PPF to show choice, opportunity cost, efficiency and growth Why an economy operates inside its frontier Specialisation and the division of labour Free market, planned and mixed economies

Demand and Supply in Product Markets

Topic overview What determines demand and what determines supply Movements along a curve versus shifts of a curve Why the demand curve slopes downwards Why the supply curve slopes upwards: marginal cost and the profit incentive Consumer surplus and producer surplus When consumers do not behave rationally

Markets and Equilibrium

Topic overview Market equilibrium and how markets clear How shifts in demand and supply change the equilibrium Price signals, incentives, rationing and the role of profit Joint, composite and derived demand and joint supply Tracing effects between interrelated markets Community surplus and allocative efficiency Demand and supply in housing, energy and commodity markets Indirect taxes and subsidies: impact and incidence

Elasticity of Demand and Supply

Topic overview Price elasticity of demand: measuring and interpreting Income and cross elasticity: normal, inferior, substitutes and complements Price elasticity of supply What determines the value of an elasticity Elasticity and total revenue How useful is elasticity for firms and government?

Factor Markets: Labour

Topic overview How a competitive labour market sets the wage Elasticity of labour demand and labour supply Wage differentials and why they persist Economic rent and transfer earnings Flexibility: trade unions, welfare and migration Minimum wages and government intervention in the labour market

Market Failures and Imperfections

Topic overview Market equilibrium, the social optimum and the meaning of market failure Externalities: private, external and social costs and benefits Community surplus and the externality diagrams Calculating and interpreting welfare loss Public goods, quasi-public goods and the free rider problem The consequences of missing markets for public goods Merit goods and demerit goods Information gaps and asymmetric information The consequences of merit goods, demerit goods and information failure Market power and other market imperfections Income and wealth inequality Absolute and relative poverty

Government Intervention in Markets

Topic overview Why governments step into markets Indirect taxes Subsidies, and choosing between taxes and subsidies Maximum and minimum prices State provision Regulation Information provision Tradeable pollution permits Government failure

The Circular Flow of Income

Topic overview Households, firms and the two-way flow Injections and withdrawals in an open economy with government Equilibrium and change in the circular flow

Measuring National Income

Topic overview Three routes to the same total: income, expenditure and output GDP as a measure of welfare and its limitations Domestic or national? GDP and GNP compared Nominal and real values: correcting for price changes Total and per capita measures

Aggregate Demand

Topic overview The four components of aggregate demand Why the aggregate demand curve slopes downwards Movements along and shifts in aggregate demand Factors that shift aggregate demand Investment: gross, net and fixed capital

Aggregate Supply

Topic overview Why short-run aggregate supply slopes upwards Factors that shift short-run aggregate supply Movements along and shifts in aggregate supply From the short run to the long run What determines long-run aggregate supply Keynesian and neoclassical views of long-run aggregate supply

Macroeconomic Equilibrium

Topic overview How aggregate demand and aggregate supply determine equilibrium Applying AD-AS analysis to growth and unemployment Applying AD-AS analysis to inflation

Macroeconomic Objectives

Topic overview Why governments target inflation, unemployment, the external balance and growth Objectives beyond the main four: the environment and the distribution of income and wealth Picturing inequality: the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient Where the objectives collide: the main policy conflicts Judging the trade-offs: how sharp is a conflict?

Inflation

Topic overview Inflation, deflation and disinflation: what the words actually mean Measuring the rate: the CPI and the RPI Working with index numbers Building a price index: the basket and the significance of weights Demand-pull and cost-push inflation The costs and consequences of inflation and deflation The policy response to inflation

Unemployment

Topic overview The claimant count and the ILO measure of unemployment Calculating and interpreting unemployment statistics Unemployment and economic inactivity: a distinction that changes the numbers The types of unemployment and what distinguishes them The causes of unemployment and of economic inactivity The costs and consequences of unemployment and inactivity Policies for unemployment and intervention in the labour market

Economic Growth

Topic overview Actual and potential growth on a production possibility frontier Measuring economic growth The economic cycle and output gaps The causes of economic growth Benefits, costs and the sustainability of growth Policies to promote economic growth using AD–AS analysis

Fiscal Policy and Its Effects

Topic overview What fiscal policy is and how it works Government spending and taxation: the main categories Direct and indirect taxation Fiscal policy in the AD-AS model Evaluating the impact of fiscal policy on output, employment, prices and agents

Monetary Policy

Topic overview The nature of monetary policy and the interest rate instrument The transmission mechanism from interest rates to aggregate demand Monetary policy in the AD-AS model Evaluating the impact of monetary policy on output, employment, prices and agents

Supply-Side Policies

Topic overview The nature of supply-side policy and tax cuts Deregulation and evaluating market-based supply-side policy Competition and innovation as supply-side policy Infrastructure as supply-side policy Labour market reform Education, training and the skills of the workforce Labour productivity: determinants and significance Supply-side policies in the AD-AS model Evaluating the impact of supply-side policies

Exchange Rates and the National Economy

Topic overview What an exchange rate is and how it is measured Exchange rate changes in the AD-AS model Holding the exchange rate above or below the market clearing level Why a government might have an exchange rate policy Evaluating the impact of exchange rate changes on output, employment, prices and agents

Short Run Versus Long Run

Topic overview The short run, the long run and the law of diminishing returns Fixed, variable and total costs of production Calculating and drawing the short-run cost curves Revenue curves: total, average and marginal revenue The profit-maximising output Shutdown, breakeven, and normal and supernormal profit Long-run cost, economies of scale and minimum efficient scale Efficiency, X inefficiency and the effects of firm size

Business Objectives

Topic overview Why firms pursue maximum profit Alternative objectives: revenue, growth, managerial utility, satisficing and the environment Ownership, control and the principal-agent problem Stakeholders, and public versus private sector objectives

Business Growth

Topic overview How and why firms grow, and why some stay small Organic growth versus merger and acquisition Horizontal, vertical and conglomerate integration Evaluating the motives for and consequences of growth

Measuring Markets

Topic overview Market size, market share and market growth The n firm concentration ratio Difficulties in measuring market share accurately Sales value against sales volume

Analysing Market Structures

Topic overview What defines a market structure Price and output across the structures Efficiency across the market structures Market structure and innovation How useful are the models of market structure?

Perfect Competition

Topic overview The price taker's revenue curves and short-run equilibrium The firm and the industry side by side How the market moves from the short run to the long run

Monopoly

Topic overview Barriers to entry Monopoly equilibrium and its consequences Price discrimination Natural monopoly Creative destruction

Monopolistic Competition

Topic overview The firm's demand curve when products are differentiated Short-run equilibrium for the firm Long-run equilibrium and excess capacity How the market moves from the short run to the long run

Oligopoly

Topic overview Concentration and interdependence: what marks out an oligopoly Collusion and price leadership Price wars and sustaining collusion Non-price competition and product differentiation The kinked demand curve model Game theory and the pay-off matrix Evaluating the costs and benefits of oligopoly

Contestable Markets

Topic overview What makes a market contestable Sunk costs and hit-and-run entry How ease of entry changes the behaviour of firms Judging contestability and its significance

Competition Policy

Topic overview The aims and shape of competition policy Breaking up firms and controlling mergers Regulation, regulators and price caps Evaluating regulation and its alternatives Taxation and subsidies as competition remedies Nationalisation Privatisation, and choosing between public and private ownership Banning unfair trading practices Judging competition policy and government failure

Trade and Globalisation

Topic overview Calculating absolute and comparative advantage Evaluating comparative advantage and its limits The gains and losses from free trade Globalisation and its effects Foreign direct investment The instruments of protectionism Evaluating protectionism The World Trade Organisation Trading blocs, trade creation and trade diversion

Economic Development

Topic overview What economic development means and how it differs from growth The difficulties of measuring development National income statistics and comparisons of living standards The Human Development Index Growth in less developed countries: benefits, costs and constraints Promoting development: aid, institutions, debt and trade

Balance of Payments

Topic overview How the balance of payments is put together Consequences of current account deficits and surpluses Policies to correct current account imbalances Expenditure-switching and expenditure-reducing policies

Exchange Rate Systems and Competitiveness

Topic overview How foreign exchange markets operate The influences on currency demand and supply Monetary policy, intervention and other influences on the exchange rate Fixed and floating exchange rate systems The Marshall-Lerner condition and the J-curve The effect of exchange rate changes on the current account Trade-weighted exchange rate indices Purchasing power parity and comparing competitiveness Evaluating exchange rate policy

European Union (EU)

Topic overview The economic case for membership of a trading bloc The costs and constraints of membership, and the position of candidate countries Enlargement, withdrawal and changes in the structure of the union The Eurozone: one currency and one interest rate

Monetary Policy and the Financial Sector

Topic overview Central banks, the banking sector and the money supply Setting the base rate and the transmission of monetary policy The Fisher equation of exchange and the quantity theory of money The financial sector and the real economy Moral hazard in banking Regulating the financial system Regulation and the money supply in a global economy Quantitative easing The money supply and monetary policy in an open economy The effectiveness of monetary policy

Fiscal Deficits and the National Debt

Topic overview The deficit and the debt: a flow and a stock What determines the size of a fiscal deficit Discretionary policy and automatic stabilisers Financing the deficit: bonds, borrowing and crowding out The benefits and costs of a deficit and of the national debt Fiscal policy, macroeconomic objectives and economic agents

Macroeconomic Policies and Objectives in a Global Economy

Topic overview Comparing the performance of different economies Global events and how they reach the domestic economy Responding to external demand and supply shocks Problems and constraints facing policymakers How the priority given to macroeconomic objectives has changed Comparing policies against one another

Quantitative Skills in Economics

Topic overview Ratios, shares and proportions in economic data Percentages and percentage changes in economic data Averages, medians and quantiles Index numbers, weighting and rebasing Converting money values to real values Cost, revenue and profit Elasticity: calculating the number and reading its meaning Choosing and reading economic charts and diagrams Interpreting economic data critically

Factor Markets: Labour

Minimum wages and government intervention in the labour market

3 things to know
Unit AS 1

Overview

National minimum wage, efficiency-wage effects soften the job losses from a minimum wage and minimum wage not necessarily reduce household poverty.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

List the main ways a government intervenes in the labour market.

Key term

Assess whether government subsidies for training and apprenticeships are a good use of public money.

Key term

What unintended consequences can well-meant labour market intervention produce?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is a national minimum wage?
Model answer
It is a legally enforced floor below which employers may not pay, usually set as an hourly rate and often varying with the worker's age. It is a price floor applied to the labour market. It binds only where the market wage would otherwise be below it, so it affects low-paying sectors while leaving better-paid work untouched. Its purpose is to raise the pay of the lowest earners and to limit the ability of employers to exploit weak bargaining power.
2
Draw and describe the effect of a minimum wage set above the market-clearing level in a competitive labour market.
Model answer
Put the wage rate in £ per hour on the vertical axis and the quantity of labour on the horizontal. Draw a downward-sloping labour demand curve and an upward-sloping labour supply curve crossing at the market-clearing wage. Draw the minimum wage as a horizontal line above that intersection. At this higher wage the quantity of labour demanded contracts back along the demand curve to the left, while the quantity supplied extends along the supply curve to the right. The horizontal distance between those two points is excess supply of labour, which is unemployment in the covered sector, and employment settles at the smaller, demand-side quantity.
3
In a low-paid sector the market-clearing wage is £9.00 per hour with 1,000 workers employed. A minimum wage of £10.50 cuts the quantity of labour demanded to 940 and raises the quantity supplied to 1,120. Calculate the excess supply of labour.
Model answer
Excess supply is the quantity supplied minus the quantity demanded at the imposed wage: 1,120 minus 940 = 180 workers. Employment itself falls from 1,000 to 940, a loss of 60 jobs, while an extra 120 workers are drawn into the market by the higher pay but cannot find work there. The figure of 180 therefore measures the total number wanting work in the sector and unable to get it, not the number who lost their jobs.
4
A minimum wage of £10.50 per hour replaces a market-clearing wage of £9.00 in a low-paid sector, and employment falls from 1,000 workers to 940. Calculate the elasticity of demand for labour in this sector.
Model answer
The wage rises by £10.50 minus £9.00 = £1.50, so the percentage change is £1.50 ÷ £9.00 × 100 = 16.67%, rounded to two decimal places. Employment falls by 1,000 minus 940 = 60 workers, a change of -60 ÷ 1,000 × 100 = -6%. Elasticity of demand for labour = -6 ÷ 16.67 = -0.36, rounded to two decimal places. Because the value lies between 0 and minus 1, demand for labour in this sector is inelastic.
5
A low-paid sector employs 1,000 workers at a market-clearing wage of £9.00 per hour. A minimum wage of £10.50 reduces employment to 940. Calculate the change in the sector's hourly wage bill.
Model answer
Before the floor the wage bill is 1,000 × £9.00 = £9,000 per hour. After it is 940 × £10.50 = £9,870 per hour. The change is £9,870 minus £9,000 = an increase of £870 per hour, which is £870 ÷ £9,000 × 100 = 9.67% higher, rounded to two decimal places. The bill rises because demand for labour is inelastic here: employment falls proportionately less than the wage rises, so those keeping their jobs gain more than is saved on the jobs lost.
6
On what does the size of the job losses caused by a minimum wage depend?
Model answer
Chiefly on the elasticity of demand for labour in the affected sectors: where wages are a large share of costs, machines can substitute and customers are price sensitive, job losses are larger. Also on how far the floor sits above the wage the market would have set, since a floor below that wage does not bind and costs no jobs at all, one only slightly above it costs very few, and only a floor set well above it costs many. And on whether employers hold monopsony power, on how much productivity improves in response, and on whether firms adjust through prices, profits or hours rather than headcount.

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Key Economic Concepts

The Basic Economic Problem of Scarcity and Choice

Demand and Supply in Product Markets

Markets and Equilibrium

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