Minimum wage workers, especially those with children, face barriers to affordable child care. Child care costs can prevent working parents who earn minimum wage from participating in the labor market. Alternately, many child-care workers also face financial barriers because they, too, earn minimal wages. Therefore, increasing the minimum wage would alleviate financial burdens for both parents and child-care workers. In this episode, both Dr. Anna Godøy and Dr. Jennie Romich discuss their research on minimum wage and its effects on parental labor supply and the child care sector.

Anna Godøy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research and an Associate Professor at the Department of Health Management and Health Economics at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests include empirical labor economics, health economics, and policy evaluation.

Dr. Jennie Romich is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Washington, director of the West Coast Poverty Center, an active member of the Center for Studies of Demography and Ecology, and an IRP affiliate. Romich studies resources and economic well-being in families with a particular emphasis on low-income workers, household budgets, and families’ interactions with public policy.

Reference Papers: Parental Labor Supply: Evidence from Minimum Wage Changes

Responding to an increased minimum wage: A mixed methods study of child care businesses during the implementation of Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance

How will higher minimum wages affect family life and children's well‐being?