Two Birds, One Stone: Minimum Wage and Child Labor

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of an exogenous and sizable increase in minimum wage on child labor outcomes in Turkey. Using data from the 2012 and 2019 Child Labor Surveys, we employ a difference-in-differences method to compare the impact of minimum wage increases on children from minimum wage-earning families with children from other households. We find that minimum wage policies, which are set to alleviate poverty by increasing household income, can also reduce the prevalence of child labor. The results demonstrate the favorable impact of parental income on reducing the incidence of child labor, which constitutes an important part of the policy toolkit for combating child labor.