Business Commons^™

The Industry And Occupation Incidence Of State Mandated Maternity Benefits, Adam Bahr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Government mandates are often used to promote equality in the workplace, often imposing additional costs upon employers. Economic theory suggest that these additional costs will be shifted onto the employees through a reduction in wages. However, when wage shifting is not an option due to anti-discrimination laws, how will employers respond to the additional costs imposed? Gruber (1994) found that wage shifting occurs when the groups benefiting from a government mandate are easily identifiable to the employer, despite the existence of anti-discrimination laws.

This study seeks to further the work of Gruber (1994) and examine wage shifting at an industry …