Scripps College Associate Professor of Economics Roberto Pedace predicts that California’s recent decision to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10 by 2016 could end up benefiting relatively high-skilled workers, but may hurt low-skilled workers.
“I found that older, more-educated men experience shorter unemployment spells with a higher minimum wage, but less-educated male workers and most women experience longer periods of unemployment when the minimum wage increases,” said Pedace, an expert source who is available to offer comments to journalists.
“Although aggregate employment may not be largely affected, more research is necessary to determine if minimum wage increases benefit some workers at the expense of the lowest-skilled workers,” said Pedace, who recently wrote “Econometrics For Dummies” (Wiley: 2013) to help students better understand concepts and terms used in econometrics. The book offers insights into model building and forecasting for those who understand introductory economic theories.
Pedace’s academic research focuses on how U.S. minimum wages affect job training and unemployment. Before joining Scripps, he taught at Claremont Graduate University, the University of Redlands and Claremont McKenna College. His work has appeared in Economic Inquiry, Industrial Relations, the Southern Economic Journal, Contemporary Economic Policy and the Journal of Sports Economics. He earned a doctorate degree in economics from the University of California, Riverside.