Jennifer Otten, Jake Vigdor, and Mark Long Analyze Effects of Minimum Wage on Seattle Food Prices
Posted: 9/26/2017 (CSDE Research)
Affiliates Jennifer Otten (lead author), Jake Vigdor, and Mark Long (along with UW colleagues James Buszkiewicz, Wesley Tang, Anju Aggarwal and Adam Drewnowski) recently published a paper titled “The Impact of a City-Level Minimum-Wage Policy on Supermarket Food Prices in Seattle-King County” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Many states and localities throughout the U.S. have adopted higher minimum wages, and higher labor costs among low-wage food system workers could result in higher food prices. However, this study finds no evidence of change in supermarket food prices by market basket or increase in prices by food group in response to the implementation of Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance. This paper is part of a broader Minimum Wage Study at the University of Washington. The full paper is available below.