On July 24, three years will have passed since the last increase in the federal minimum wage. It’s currently stuck at $7.25 an hour, or just over $15,000 a year for a full-time worker. My colleagues at the Center for Economic and Policy Research have made a number of comparisons to show just how low that is.
For example, if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation since 1968, its historical high point, it would now be over $10.50 per hour. And this is despite the fact that today’s low-wage workers are older and better educated than in the past. Had the minimum wage also risen in step with low-wage workers’ age and educational attainment since 1968, it would even higher in 2012, approaching $11 per hour.