The Cunningham and Siga (2013) study on Mexico and Brazil mentioned earlier found that the minimum wage increase in Mexico mainly affected the employment of women and workers at the lowest wage levels. With a 1 percent increase in the minimum wage, women earning less than the minimum wage had a 0.08 percent greater probability of losing their jobs.

Although women in Mexico did receive wage increases, they were lower than the increases for men, especially for women earning the same or less than the minimum wage. In Brazil, the minimum wage increase also had a negative effect on the employment of women and young workers. The greatest job losses were seen in the vulnerable groups that were earning the least.

Similarly, Di Nardo et al. (1996), in their studies of the United States, were able to show that the minimum wage disproportionally affected women at the bottom of the pay scale. Their study found that the minimum wage law is applied more strictly for women and less for men. This uneven application of the minimum wage could account for the gender difference in the impact on employment. Addison et al. (2010), in their analysis of the effect of the minimum wage on employment and the participation of women in the workforce in 16 OECD member countries, found that the variations in the minimum wage level did in fact reduce the employment and participation of women. They also found that this impact is greater in countries where the minimum wage is higher relative to the average wage.

The literature on the effect of the minimum wage on wages for young workers is less consistent. Kristensen and Cunningham (2006), in their study of 19 countries in Latin America, found that in the countries where the wages of young workers, along with women and low‐skilled workers, are most affected by minimum wage policies, the minimum wage is low relative to the average wage, perhaps because the minimum wage is closer to the wages received by vulnerable workers, thus affecting this group much more. Some businesses may pay the minimum wage to workers who have more skills and deserve the minimum wage, but if the minimum wage is high for the skills that the workers have to offer, the employers may choose to pay less than the minimum wage. In Mexico, Cunningham and Siga (2013) showed that older workers benefited more from a minimum wage increase than the youngest workers. This finding was valid for any wage bracket. In other words, young workers earned less following an increase in the minimum wage than older low‐skilled workers.

In Brazil, older workers benefit more than young workers in some wage brackets, but not all. Within the group of low wage earners, when the minimum wage is increased 10 perfect, young workers earn more (a 0.87 percent increase) than older workers (a 0.48 percent wage increase).

Within the group of low‐skilled workers, there is the special case of young workers whose lack of experience and, in some cases, lack of skills as well, limits them to low‐skilled occupations. A review of the literature by Brown (1999) noted that in the 1970s and 1980s young workers were losing jobs because of increases in the minimum wage, whereas more recent studies have shown 13