In Thailand, a minimum wage was introduced in 1972 for Bangkok and the metropolitan area. Currently, the minimum wage in Thailand differs by province and by economic sector. The level of the minimum wage relative to the overall average wage is high, at a ratio of approximately 0.5 (Del Carpio and Pabon, 2014). Del Carpio et al. (2014) reported that changes in the regional minimum wage between 1998 and 2010 had negative repercussions on employment (with an elasticity of −0.05) and the effect was disproportionally higher for workers who were the least productive (older workers between 50 and 60 years of age and workers with lower levels of education). In terms of hours worked, an increase was observed for male workers, suggesting that less productive workers more apt to lose their job were being replaced by working‐age male workers.

For African countries, the literature on the effect of the minimum wage is relatively recent. Most of the analyses are based on the experience of South Africa, which has been gradually instituting a minimum wage policy since 1999 in specific sectors of the economy. For example, Bhorat et al. (2013) studied the effect of introducing the minimum wage in five low‐skilled job sectors: retail trade, domestic work, forestry, security, and transportation (taxi service), based on panel data from household surveys for the period 2000‐2007. This analysis found that the minimum wage had no significant negative effect on employment in four of the sectors. The exception was public transportation, which included unionized taxi drivers. In fact, the retail trade, domestic work, and security sectors saw increases in employment following introduction of the minimum wage. However, these sectors also saw a reduction in the number of hours worked, which suggests that employers adapted by cutting back on their workers’ schedules.

An adverse effect on employment has been seen in the agricultural sector (Bhorat, Kanbur and Stanwix, 2011). According to estimates by Bhorat et al. (2011), the probability of finding a job in agriculture fell by 13 percentage points following the introduction of minimum wage legislation for this sector. On the other hand, there were no changes in the number of hours worked, suggesting that the only adjustment channel was laying off personnel and the schedule of those who remained employed was unaffected.

A more recent study by Garbers (2015), also on South Africa, supports the findings just mentioned for workers in agriculture. Based on panel data for 1997‐2007, this study found job losses among the less qualified workers in the commercial agricultural sector. Landowners made various adjustments in response to higher labor costs resulting from introduction of the minimum wage and subsequent increases. While on the one hand there was an uptick in the demand for more qualified workers and those with more years of experience, on the other hand the owners of larger farms decided to intensify agricultural production by buying tractors and adopting other new technologies.

Dinkelman and Ranchhod (2012) studied the impact of introducing a minimum wage for domestic workers in South Africa in 2002. Using the Difference‐in‐Differences estimator, this 11