Estimating the effect of an increase in the minimum wage on hours worked and employment in Ireland

On 1 January 2016, the Irish minimum wage (MW) increased from €8.65 to €9.15 per hour, an increase of approximately 6 per cent. Using data from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) for the years 2015 and 2016, we estimate the effect of the increase in the minimum wage on the hours worked and likelihood of job loss among low paid workers using a difference-in-differences estimator.