Minimum wages and the gender gap in pay. Evidence from the UK and Ireland.

Since women are disproportionately in low paid work, they should benefit the most from minimum wage policies. We exploit the introduction of a national minimum wage (MW) in Ireland (in 2000) and the UK (in 1999) to check this prediction. Using panel survey data, we implement difference-in-difference estimation of a distribution regression model. We separate out "price" effects from "composition" effects. A large reduction of the gap at low wages is found for Ireland, with small spill-over effects further up in the distribution. There is hardly any effect in Britain, largely because of apparent non-compliance with the minimum wage legislation.