Second, increases in the minimum wage often result in the compression of wage differentials rather than all wages growing by the same rate. This is particularly relevant for specialised low-skilled workers with earnings close to the minimum wage. An obvious consequence of wage compression is to greatly diminish incentives to specialise through formal schooling or other means to develop new skills. In this regard, the minimum wage hikes might hurt enrolment in short vocational and technical programmes that help low-skilled individuals specialise in certain occupations.