  Workers who earn at or below the minimum wage in the United States are mostly
either less educated, young, or female. Little is known, however, concerning
the extent to which the minimum wage influences wage differentials among
workers with different observed characteristics and among workers with the same
observed characteristics. This paper shows that changes in the real value of
the minimum wage over recent decades have affected the relationship of hourly
wages with education, experience, and gender. The results suggest that changes
in the real value of the minimum wage account in part for the patterns of
changes in education, experience, and gender wage differentials and mostly for
the patterns of changes in within-group wage differentials among female workers
with lower levels of experience.
