PROSPERED Dataset: Minimum wage policy

This dataset captures whether a minimum wage policy exists in a country and quantifies the monthly minimum wage level over time. The minimum wages recorded in this database apply only to private sector workers, unless it is stipulated in the sources that private sector minimum wages cannot be lower than public sector minimum wages. One exception is self-declared socialist economies where the government/public sector has traditionally been one of the largest employers; in this case, we recorded minimum wage levels for the public sector. In countries where the minimum wage is sector-specific or occupation-specific, we captured the minimum wage level applicable to either the manufacturing sector or unskilled workers. Scope: Longitudinal data is available for every year between 1995 and 2013 for the 121 countries that have been surveyed by either the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) at least once between those dates.