Relative performance evaluation (RPE) provides employees with an incentive to perform well while insulating their compensation from shocks that also affect the performances of other workers in the same firm, industry, or market. This paper reviews the benefits and costs of RPE and tests for the...

Using a longitudinal survey of fast-food restaurants in Texas, the authors examine the impact of recent increases in the federal minimum wage on a low-wage labor market. Less than 5% of fast-food restaurants were using the new youth subminimum wage in July/August 1991, even though the vast...

Prevailing wage laws, which require that construction workers employed by private contractors on public projects be paid wages and benefits at least equal to those 'prevailing' for similar work in or near the locality in which the project is located, have been the focus of an extensive policy...