--%>

Question on level of free market wage rate and employment

In the year of 1996, the U.S. Congress raised the minimum wage from $4.25 per hour to $5.15 per hour. Some of the people suggested that a government subsidy could help employers finance the higher wage. Assume the supply of low-skilled labour is specified by

                                                                          LS= 10w

where LS is the quantity of low-skilled labour (in millions of persons employed each year) and w is the wage rate (in dollars per hour). The demand for labour is specified by
                                                             LD =80-10w

What will be the level of free market wage rate & employment? Assume the government sets a minimum wage of $5 per hour. How many people would be employed then?
In a free-market equilibrium, LS = LD. Solving out yields w = $4 and LS = LD = 40. If the minimum wage is $5, then LS = 50 and LD = 30. The number of people employed will be specified by the labour demand, thus employers will hire 30 million workers.

2011_ans 12.png

 

   Related Questions in Finance Basics

  • Q : Explain Proposed New Positions Proposed

    Proposed New Positions: It is a request for an authorization to use up funds to use additional people to execute work. Proposed new positions might be for limited time periods (that is, limited term) and for full or less than full tim

  • Q : Chartered banks Normal 0 false false

    Normal 0 false false

  • Q : Define Senate Senate : The higher house

    Senate: The higher house of California’s Legislature comprising of 40 members. As an outcome of Proposition 140 (that is, 1990, term limits) and Proposition 28 (that is, 2012, limits on Legislators’ terms in office), members chosen in or a

  • Q : Why do focusing on cash flows rather

    Why do we focus on cash flows rather than profits while evaluating proposed capital budgeting projects? We targeted on cash flows instead of profits while evaluating proposed capital budgeting projects since it is cash flow that changes the valu

  • Q : What are Summary Schedules Summary

    Summary Schedules: Different schedules in the Governor’s Budget Summary that summarize state revenues, expenditures and other fiscal and personnel data for the past, present, and budget years.

  • Q : What is Abatement Abatement : A

    Abatement: A decrease to an expense which has already been made. In state accounting, only specific kinds of receipts are accounted for as abatements, comprising refund of overpayment of salaries, rebates from vendors and third partie

  • Q : Four supply factors of economic growth

    Normal 0 false false

  • Q : What is Legislative Analysts Office

    Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO): A non-partisan organization which gives advice to the Legislature on the fiscal and policy matters. For illustration, the LAO annually publishes a full analysis of the Governor's Budget and this document becom

  • Q : Explain the basic goal of a business

    Normal 0 false false

  • Q : Define Grants Grants : It is generally

    Grants: It is generally used to explain amounts of money received by an organization for a particular purpose however with no obligation to repay (that is, in contrast to a loan, though the award might stipulate the repayment of funds under some situa