Did the National Minimum Wage Affect UK Prices?

One potential channel through which the effects of the minimum wage could be directed is that firms that employ minimum-wage workers could have passed on any higher labour costs resulting from the minimum wage in the form of higher prices. This study looks at the effects of the minimum wage on the prices of UK goods and services by comparing prices of goods and services produced by industries in which UK minimum-wage workers make up a substantial share of total costs with prices of goods and services that make less use of minimum-wage labour. Using sectoral-level price data matched to Labour Force Survey data on the share of minimum-wage workers in each sector, it is hard to find much evidence of significant price changes in the months that correspond immediately to the uprating of the national minimum wage. However, over the longer term, prices in several minimum-wage sectors - notably, take-away food, canteen meals, hotel services and domestic services - do appear to have risen significantly faster than prices in non-minimum-wage sectors. These effects were particularly significant in the four years immediately after the introduction of the minimum wage.