Spillover Effect of the Minimum Wage in France: An Unconditional Quantile Regression Approach

This study evaluates the impact of the minimum wage on the earnings distribution in France, using an unconditional quantile regression method proposed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009). To address the endogeneity issue due to the specific French revaluation process of the minimum wage, we use a natural experiment. As several minimum wage levels coexisted because of different schedules in the French “35-hour week" application, they were forced to converge to one single level between 2003 and 2005. We find significant effects of the minimum wage on the earnings distribution of male and female employees up to the seventh decile.