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Wage Reimbursement and Minority Voter Turnout *
Author(s) -
Hostetter Joshua D.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12220
Subject(s) - voting , reimbursement , turnout , incentive , wage , demographic economics , population , ethnic group , current population survey , economics , survey data collection , political science , affect (linguistics) , labour economics , politics , demography , psychology , economic growth , law , sociology , health care , statistics , mathematics , microeconomics , communication
Objective In this article, I estimate the conditional effect of racial minorities and women on the relationship between wage reimbursement laws and voter turnout. Scholars have found evidence that voting laws affect demographic segments of the population differently. However, scholars have not considered the theoretical implications of pay incentive structures for different minority groups. Methods Using pooled cross‐sectional survey data from the November Supplement Current Population Survey 1996–2012, I test whether paid time off to vote laws increase the likelihood of voting for racial and gender minorities. Results The findings indicate that women and Asian Americans are highly responsive to wage reimbursement, Hispanic Americans are relatively unresponsive, and blacks are highly unresponsive relative to whites. Conclusions Reimbursing minorities for wages lost while voting decreases the costs of voting and increases turnout for these racial and gender minority groups except for blacks. I suggest the long history of discrimination and mistreatment by economic and political institutions has led to a lower level of blacks willing to engage in wage reimbursement because of mistrust in the delivery system.