The instability of labor earnings in the United States contributes to earnings inequality and may diminish household welfare. Despite the importance of earnings instability little is known about its correlates or causes. This paper seeks to better understand earnings instability by studying whether volatile firms pay volatile earnings.

Raising the wage will make it more expensive to hire younger and low-skill workers. There are better ways to help the poor.

In this week's episode of AEI's Banter podcast, Stu and Andrew sit down with AEI research fellow Michael Strain to discuss the likely effects of raising the federal minimum wage law from $7.25 to $9.00 as President Obama proposed in his recent State of the Union address.

In diagnosing the state of our union, President Obama correctly observed that “our economy is adding jobs -- but too many people still can’t find full-time employment.” But the president’s call to increase the federal minimum wage by over 24 percent will make it harder for firms to hire workers because it will make workers more expensive.

Michigan's labor unions are counting on your memory failing, come Nov. 6. They want voters to forget the state's grim history with public sector unions and vote in favor of Proposal 2, a ballot initiative that would create a constitutional right for these unions to bargain collectively. As such, a...

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 114,000 in September and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The rate is now down at the level of January 2009, and below 8 percent for the first time in 44 months.

As voters head to...

"I expect the report to show that the labor market remained sluggish in September, with an increase in nonfarm payrolls of only about 100,000 and an uptick in the unemployment rate to 8.2 percent. Nothing in the report should deter the Fed from continuing with its aggressive policy easing." Stephen...

Several American Enterprise Institute (AEI) economists are available to comment on Friday's jobs numbers.

In response to a budget shortfall, the mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania cut the pay for some 400 city employees to the federal minimum wage, promising to restore their pay once city finances have stabilized. This situation has thrown gas on the slow-burning fire over the minimum wage. What are the effects of minimum wages? Are minimum wages fair?