Working Paper
RISEI Lab Working Paper No. 2026-08 · August 2026
Minimum Wages and Institutional Living for Adults with Disabilities
Download Working Paper (PDF) ↓Abstract
This paper examines whether minimum-wage increases affect the residential arrangements of working-age adults with disabilities. Using the 2008–2024 American Community Survey, we compare changes among adults with and without disabilities within the same state and year following large state minimum-wage increases. Institutional residence among adults with disabilities declines by 0.6 percentage points, while residence in other group quarters increases by 0.3 percentage points, leaving total group-quarters residence largely unchanged. The decline in institutional residence is concentrated among adults with one or two limitations, for whom employment and earnings increase and Supplemental Security Income receipt declines. Adults with three or more limitations experience declining labor-market outcomes and shift from institutions to other group quarters. The results show that residential arrangements are an important and previously overlooked margin of adjustment to minimum-wage policy.
At a glance
Key numbers
Overview
Minimum-wage research has focused on employment and earnings. This paper opens a different margin: where adults with disabilities live. Institutional and group-quarters residence is a central feature of disability policy, and it turns out to respond to the wage floor.
Using the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2024 and comparing adults with and without disabilities in the same state and year, the study finds that large minimum-wage increases are followed by a measurable decline in institutional residence among adults with disabilities, offset by a smaller rise in other group-quarters living.
The adjustment is not uniform. For adults with one or two functional limitations, the move out of institutions comes with rising employment and earnings and falling SSI receipt: a labor-market-driven transition toward independence. For adults with three or more limitations, labor-market outcomes decline and the shift is from institutions into other group quarters. Residential arrangements, the paper argues, are an important and previously overlooked channel through which minimum-wage policy reaches people with disabilities.
Findings
What the paper finds
- Institutional residence falls with the wage floor.Following large state minimum-wage increases, institutional residence among adults with disabilities declines by 0.6 percentage points relative to adults without disabilities in the same state and year.
- The offset is a smaller move to other group quarters.Other group-quarters residence rises 0.3 percentage points, so total group-quarters living is largely unchanged — the composition, not the level, shifts.
- For milder limitations, it looks like independence.Adults with one or two limitations see employment and earnings rise and SSI receipt fall, consistent with a labor-market-driven exit from institutions.
- For severe limitations, it looks like reshuffling.Adults with three or more limitations experience declining labor-market outcomes and move from institutions into other group quarters rather than into work.
Cite this paper
Yin, M., & Seo, R. (2026). Minimum Wages and Institutional Living for Adults with Disabilities. RISEI Lab Working Paper No. 2026-08. Northwestern University.
Funding & disclosure
Data are drawn from the IPUMS American Community Survey, a state minimum-wage panel compiled from Vaghul–Zipperer and U.S. Department of Labor sources, and the Census Building Permits Survey. A replication package will be released with the paper. Views expressed are those of the authors.