This study examines the short-term effects of the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Germany on hourly wages, monthly wages and paid working hours. We exploit a novel panel dataset by linking the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2014 and the Earn-ings Survey (ES) 2015 and apply a difference-in-differences approach at the establishment level. The results indicate an effect of the introduction of the statutory minimum wage on the average hourly wages of employees in minimum wage establishments of up to 5.9 percent. Due to negative effects on average working time of approximately minus 3.1 percent, the effects on monthly gross earnings are smaller but still amount to up to 2.7 percent on aver-age. The results further suggest that the minimum wage effects on earnings were greater among low-wage employees than on average, in eastern Germany than in western Germany, and among part-time employees and marginal employees than among full-time employees.
