The effects of the affordable care act dependent coverage mandate on parents’ labor market outcomes

•We examine the labor market impacts of the affordable care act dependent mandate (ACA-DM).•Using data from the American community Survey, we find that the ACA-DM reduced parents’ annual wages by about $2600 without significant reductions in the probability of employment and working hours.•Our back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the magnitude of the estimated wage impact is similar to the increased insurance premium of a family plan due to the ACA-DM.•These findings imply that a deadweight loss associated with the expansion of dependent health coverage is likely to be small as an increase in employers’ labor costs is offset by a reduction in parents’ wages without significant reductions in labor inputs.