Most Americans weren’t born the last time the federal minimum wage bought as little as it does today. It’s been nearly 13 years since Congress raised the nation’s base salary to $ 7.25 an hour, and that rate is now worth less than at any time in 66 years, according to a new analysis.
Given the latest inflation data, the current value of the US minimum wage in real dollars has been at its lowest level since February 1956, when the US base wage was 75 cents (or 7, $ 19 in June 2022), according to the Institute for Economic Policy. , a left-wing think tank that favors rising workers’ wages.
Meanwhile, workers earning the federal minimum today earn about 27% less in inflation-adjusted terms than their counterparts in July 2009, the last time Congress enacted an increase, the PPE estimates. Americans earning the minimum today earn the equivalent of 40% less than a similar worker in February 1968, when the value of the base wage was at its peak.
While Capitol Hill lawmakers have not raised the federal minimum wage or indexed it to inflation, 30 states across the country and nearly 50 cities and counties have increased the wages of those earning less.
A dozen states and the District of Columbia demand salaries of at least $ 15 an hour or more, and Hawaiian lawmakers have recently voted to raise the state minimum to $ 18 in 2028, EPI noted. Workers from more than 20 states, cities and counties he received a salary increase on July 1st as higher minimums have been introduced.
Below the poverty line
However, the purchasing power of the basic wage in most of these 30 states is below what it was in 1968, when the federal minimum was worth $ 13.86 in 2022 dollars, according to the inflation calculator of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Workers in the 20-state minimum wage continue to earn $ 7.25 an hour, a pay rate below the poverty line of $ 8.38 for families of two or more people where one person works. These 20 states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming .
Separately, a survey by Purdue University recently found that members of Generation Z, Americans born after 1996, struggle more to feed themselves and their families. About 16% of the country said they had suffered from food insecurity in the past 30 days, but 30% of Generation Z adults reported receiving free food from a food pantry or charity in it. time period, according to the monthly survey of more than 1,200 Americans.
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