Minimum Wages and Occupational Skills Acquired During High School

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Geocode sample and the O*NET Occupational Database are used to generate estimates of skills acquired on jobs held by youth during high school. The types of jobs firms offer high school students change with the minimum wage. Jobs offered in high minimum wage states involve less skill acquisition. These same skills are shown to be important for income, employment and occupational skills later in life. Additional schooling substitutes for job skills acquired in high school, implying lost on-the-job training in high school is most costly for youth who do not go to college