Does Minimum Wage Increase Labor Productivity? Evidence from Piece Rate Workers

I examine worker effort as a potential margin of adjustment to minimum wage hike using unique data on piece rate workers who perform homogenous task and whose individual output is rigorously recorded. By employing difference-in-differences strategy that exploits the increase in Florida’s from $6.79 $7.21 January 1, 2009, location pre-2009 productivity distribution, provide evidence consistent with incumbent workers’ positive responses.