Recent minimum wage policy and its impacts on birth outcomes

After a pause in statutory minimum wage increases during the Great Recession, several states increased their minimum wages, including increases as large as 60% over just a few years. Using a triple difference-in-differences framework and data on the universe of births from 2010 to 2019, this study investigates how recent minimum wage hikes affected birth outcomes. We first document sizeable negative impacts of minimum wage policy on the labor supply and economic well-being of females aged 16-44. We then document small adverse effects on birth outcomes, estimating that minimum wage increases led to lower birthweight, fewer normal birthweight births, and more small for gestational age births. These findings generally contrast with an earlier literature relying primarily on much smaller minimum wage increases which showed more evidence of positive impacts on birth outcomes.