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Table 4 Share of firms answering that the minimum wage adjustment channel was ‘Relevant’, in % of the firms in respective sub-group for each country (Relevant + Not Relevant = 100%)

From: How do firms adjust to rises in the minimum wage? Survey evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

MW rise

BG

EE

HU

LT

LV

PL

RO

SI

CEE8

Firms with minimum wage employees (before the MW rise)

 We had to lay people off

25.2

9.7

19.2

9.1

22.7

38.5

35.7

7.1

29.6

 We could hire fewer people

12.2

47.3

28.2

29.5

46.4

54.7

20.7

45.8

 We had to raise product prices

35.0

39.2

57.0

36.6

52.5

52.3

67.8

15.0

52.7

 We had to reduce non-labour costs

8.1

27.8

56.1

49.7

55.6

66.6

77.9

63.2

59.1

 We had to raise the wages of other employees

29.2

32.9

30.0

49.9

43.3

29.8

18.8

40.5

 We increased productivity

21.5

25.0

59.4

55.7

45.6

68.7

61.6

 Percentage of firms that regard at least one channel as relevant

100.0

66.7

100.0

66.4

70.6

86.6

100.0

100.0

93.2

 Number of observations

317

169

1540

264

283

444

1223

493

4650

Firms without minimum wage employees (before the MW rise)

 We had to lay people off

13.9

3.3

11.7

0.0

6.4

7.2

14.2

7.8

 We could hire fewer people

3.2

20.6

3.6

12.0

14.2

29.7

14.5

 We had to raise product prices

41.3

15.3

30.4

10.8

20.3

21.0

36.0

22.9

 We had to reduce non-labour costs

5.6

13.6

23.9

13.9

24.0

26.1

45.7

23.8

 We had to raise the wages of other employees

50.6

10.9

22.3

25.8

27.5

12.3

27.2

 We increased productivity

35.8

12.4

28.5

28.7

26.3

28.1

28.1

 Percentage of firms that regard at least one channel as relevant

100.0

26.3

100.0

39.2

37.1

41.3

100.0

100.0

80.4

 Number of observations

211

329

479

248

241

453

815

2776

  1. The option ‘Relevant’ is assigned if the firm answered that the corresponding adjustment channel is of little relevance, relevant or very relevant; when only a yes or no option was available, ‘Relevant’ refers to the ‘yes’ answer. ‘Total’ shows the average share of firms claiming any of the six adjustment channels as ‘Relevant’
  2. Slovenian firms without minimum wage employees were not asked the corresponding question
  3. Sources: WDN3 survey, authors’ estimations, firm number adjusted estimates