The Expected Penalty for Committing a Crime: An Analysis of Minimum Wage Violations
发现最低工资法的实际惩罚高于少付工资，结合被查处的概率，预期成本足以使合规成为理性选择，解释了高合规率悖论。
Several papers have noted and sought to explain the paradox of minimum wage law compliance. Compliance rates are high even though the penalty for violating the law is allegedly less than the underpayment to workers. By comparison, we show that the actual penalty exceeds the underpayment. We combine our estimates of the costs of violating the law with estimates of the probability of apprehension to arrive at the expected cost of violating the law. In contrast with previous work, we find that the expected costs are sufficiently high to make compliance rational.