17 Years at $7.25
The federal minimum wage was set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. It has not changed since. That is the longest stretch without an increase since the minimum wage was created in 1938.
$7.25 since 2009. 17 years frozen. The longest stretch without an increase in minimum wage history. It has lost 30% of its purchasing power.
A full-time minimum wage worker earns $15,080 per year before taxes. That is below the federal poverty line for a family of two. In every state, it is not enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.
30% of Its Value Gone
The Consumer Price Index shows that the spending power of $7.25 today is only 70% of what it was in 2009. A dollar in 2009 bought what $1.43 buys today. The wage stayed the same. Everything else got more expensive.
The Economic Policy Institute calculated that the real value of the federal minimum wage reached a 66-year low in 2023. Its purchasing power peaked in 1968 at about $12.50 in 2023 dollars, and by 2023 it had lost 42% of that peak value.
25 States Block Cities From Raising It
25 states preempt local minimum wage laws. A city that votes to raise wages above $7.25 is overridden by the state legislature. The Economic Policy Institute maps these preemptions. They are concentrated in the same states that have not raised their own minimums above the federal floor.
30 states and DC have set their own minimums above $7.25. Some are significantly higher. Washington state is at $16.66. California at $16.50.
But 20 states use the federal minimum as their own, meaning workers in those states earn $7.25.
The Compound
Workers earning $7.25 are the same workers facing $2,500 more per year in grocery costs from tariffs. The same workers losing SNAP benefits under new work requirements. The same workers waiting years for Section 8 vouchers that 75% of eligible families never receive.
Each policy is defended independently. The cumulative effect falls on the same households. The minimum wage is the foundation. When the foundation has not moved in 17 years while everything built on it gets more expensive, the structure collapses.
Correction, October 14, 2026: An earlier version of this brief said the federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 at about $13.50 in today’s dollars, had lost 46% of that value, and was worth less than at any point since 1949. The Economic Policy Institute puts the 1968 peak at about $12.50 in 2023 dollars and found the 2023 wage was worth 42% less, a 66-year low (EPI). The headline and summary now use EPI’s figure.