The federal minimal wage has not risen from $7.25 for 15 years. That run extends the longest such streak for the reason that federal minimal wage was carried out in 1938.
Nonetheless, due to inflation and modifications within the cost-of-living, the federal minimal wage is value far much less now than at any level since 1949.
A full time worker working 40 hours every week, 52 weeks a yr would earn a complete $15,080 a yr, earlier than taxes. And that assumes they’ve paid sick days, trip, and household depart, all of that are advantages which might be unlikely to be supplied in minimal wage jobs.
“The minimal wage has fallen to this point behind the price of residing that hundreds of thousands of employees are incomes wages too low to reside on on the minimal wage and above it,” says Holly Sklar, CEO of Enterprise for a Truthful Minimal Wage, a community of companies that assist elevating the minimal wage.
As of 2023 there have been 869,000 folks within the U.S. incomes the minimal wage, in line with BLS knowledge. The quantity has been virtually halved for the reason that pandemic, when 1.6 million folks made the minimal wage in 2019. Minimal wage earners are disproportionately ladies. They make up 68% p.c of the folks on minimal wage.
The federal minimal wage was final raised in July 2009. On the time, $7.25 was the equal of $10.58 adjusted for inflation right this moment, in line with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator. Since then, all legislative efforts to lift the speed have fallen flat.
The contentious nature of U.S. politics has stored the federal authorities from passing a legislation that might improve the minimal wage, in line with Sklar. “You should have the celebs completely aligned the place it is a excessive precedence in Congress and the White Home, and you have sufficient assist to interrupt a Senate filibuster.”
There have been a number of makes an attempt to lift the federal minimal wage. The newest was in 2021, when Congress was engaged on passing the $1.9 trillion stimulus invoice that got here within the wake of the pandemic-era financial downturn. A Democrat-led effort to try to embrace a provision that might increase the minimal wage to $15 handed the Home of Representatives. Nonetheless, it finally failed within the Senate on procedural grounds.
As soon as a difficulty that was principally a precedence for progressive Democrats, it’s now gained traction with some Republicans as effectively. In 2021, a bunch of Republican senators put forth a invoice that might increase the minimal wage to $11 an hour over a 4 yr interval. Critics of the invoice took difficulty with a provision that might tie the wage improve to a provision that mandated employers confirm the immigration standing of their staff.
Regardless of the federal minimal wage being locked at $7.25, states can increase their minimal wage thresholds. Thirty states and the District of Columbia have minimal wages larger than $7.25 an hour. Washington D.C. has the best minimal wage within the nation of $17.50 an hour. It’s adopted intently by Washington state’s minimal wage of $16.28, and California and New York each have statewide minimal wages of $16 an hour.
California additionally has specialised minimal wage legal guidelines for quick meals and well being care employees, who at the moment are assured $20 an hour and as much as $25 an hour respectively.
