Minimum Wages and Employment focuses on the ""new minimum wage research"". This is the first comprehensive review of the literature in the past fifteen years. It includes the initial round of the new minimum wage research on the employment effects of the minimum wage, major conceptual and empirical issues that arose out of that research, recent increases in minimum wage laws, and the empirical research on the employment effects of the minimum wage in other countries.

The book provides an assessment of alternative models of the labour market. It offers general conclusions about the effects of the minimum wage on employment that are relevant to policymakers, pointing out in what context and for which workers the minimum wage will have consequences. Finally, by presenting a comprehensive review of the more recent minimum wage literature, the authors explain the range of results in the literature, identify sources of differences in these results, and determine what conclusions can be drawn from the literature.