最低工資：所得分配與反貧窮效果的評析

The Minimum Wage, Income Distribution, and Poverty

最低工資制度目前為世界先進與開發中國家所普遍採行，它被視為是保護勞工權益的一種標竿。本文對最低工資研究的文獻作一檢視，希望有助於國人對最低工資、所得分配及貧窮之間關係的了解。先進國家的實証研究再三顯示，低工資與家庭貧窮之間並沒有密切的關係存在，試圖以最低工資政策來消減貧窮、促進所得平均分配，可能反因最低工資存在反就業效果，而適得其反。我國的基本工資政策正在起步階段，應避免陷入以基本工資政策作為反貧窮工具的窠臼之中。

The analysis in this paper is based on the published papers to evaluate the effect of the minimum wage on income distribution and poverty. Most of papers show that, the effect of the minimum wage on the distribution of family earnings is somewhat less direct, as not all workers who are affected by an increase in the minimum wage live in family with low earnings. In addition, the connection between minimum wages and poverty is even less direct, because most people who live in poverty are nonworkers, and the minimum wage can affect only families with workers. By reducing employment, an increase in the minimum wage will create more costs than benefits. Even the results in the literature show that the efficiency cost of a modest increase in the minimum wage is small, the minimum wage is not suggested as a policy instrument to improve income distribution or reduce poverty.