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 applied in 1938.
Nonetheless, due to inflation and adjustments 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 per week, 52 weeks a 12 months would earn a complete $15,080 a 12 months, earlier than taxes. And that assumes they’ve paid sick days, trip, and household go away, all of that are advantages which are unlikely to be supplied in minimal wage jobs.
“The minimum wage has fallen so far behind the cost of living that millions of workers are earning wages too low to live on at the minimum wage and above it,” says Holly Sklar, CEO of Enterprise for a Honest Minimal Wage, a community of companies that assist elevating the minimal wage.
As of 2023 there have been 869,000 individuals 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 individuals made the minimal wage in 2019. Minimal wage earners are disproportionately girls. They make up 68% p.c of the individuals 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 in the present day, in line with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator. Since then, all legislative efforts to boost 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 need to have the stars perfectly aligned where it’s a high priority in Congress and the White House, and you’ve got enough support to break a Senate filibuster.”
There have been a number of makes an attempt to boost the federal minimal wage. The latest 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 in the end failed within the Senate on procedural grounds.
As soon as a problem that was principally a precedence for progressive Democrats, it’s now gained traction with some Republicans as effectively. In 2021, a gaggle of Republican senators put forth a invoice that might increase the minimal wage to $11 an hour over a 4 12 months interval. Critics of the invoice took problem with a provision that might tie the wage improve to a provision that mandated employers confirm the immigration standing of their workers.
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 increased than $7.25 an hour. Washington D.C. has the very 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 staff, who at the moment are assured $20 an hour and as much as $25 an hour respectively.
