This paper investigates the impact of minimum wages on wages and employment in
Greece between 2009 and 2017. Our main contribution is the examination of the effects
of minimum wages under a dramatically changing context, as during this period Greece
has experienced the deepest recession in its recent history, extensive labour market
reforms, and several changes in the minimum wage, including a large decrease.
Employing a unique administrative panel matched employer-employee data set and a
range of estimators, such as difference-in-differences, fixed effects, and Instrumental
Variables, we find that minimum wages have a positive and significant effect on
individual and firm-level wages with significant positive wage spill-overs extending,
sometimes, above the median wage, but no systematic employment effects