Federal Minimum Wage History: Every Increase and What It Is Worth Today

01The Minimum Wage in Today's Dollars

The federal minimum wage is a fixed number of dollars, so it loses value every year Congress leaves it alone. The chart shows the rate as written into law and the same rate in September 2026 dollars. In real terms the minimum climbed for three decades, peaked in 1968 and has never returned to that level. Each increase since has bought a few years of relief before inflation wore it down again.

Each point is the average rate in effect during that year (for example, $1.58 in 1968, when $1.60 began in February), adjusted with that year's CPI-U average and the September 2026 CPI-U for today, so it can differ slightly from the figures for individual rates, which use the CPI for the month each took effect. Sources: U.S. Department of Labor; Bureau of Labor Statistics.

02What Was the Minimum Wage Worth in Your Year?

03Every Federal Minimum Wage Increase Since 1938

Congress has raised the federal minimum 22 times since the Fair Labor Standards Act set it at 25 cents in 1938. Before the current gap, the longest wait between raises was 9.9 years, from September 1997 to July 2007. The last two columns show how much each rate was worth in today's dollars, using the CPI for the month it took effect and for the month before the next raise.

Rates under the 1938 Act. Workers first covered by the 1961 and 1966 amendments started at lower rates until all rates were unified in 1978. Worth when set: the rate adjusted with the CPI-U for the month it took effect. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

04The Minimum Wage Against Average Pay

Another way to measure the minimum is against what ordinary workers earn. In 1968 the federal minimum was 52% of average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers in the private sector. Today it is 22%, because average pay has kept rising while the minimum has stood still.

Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees, total private (BLS series CEU0500000008), annual averages; latest September 2026.

05Minutes of Work at the Minimum Wage

How long would a worker earning the federal minimum have to work to buy everyday things? The table compares 1981, the first year of the $3.35 rate, with 2009, using the $7.25 rate that took effect that July against the full year's average prices, and today. For all 11 items it takes longer today than it did in 2009, because prices kept rising and the wage did not.

BLS average prices, U.S. city average: annual averages for 1981 and 2009 and September 2026 for today. More items, and the same comparison at average pay, are in the Hours-of-Work Price Museum.

06The Tipped Minimum Wage

Restaurant servers and other tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage, as long as the cash wage plus tips reaches the full minimum; if it does not, the employer must pay the difference. The 1966 amendments created this tip credit. Since 1991 the federal cash wage has been $2.13 an hour, and a 1996 law separated it from the regular minimum, so it did not rise with the increases that followed. In today's money, $2.13 has the buying power of about $0.85 in 1991.

Selected years with published rates. Sources: Congressional Research Service, report R43445; U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wages for tipped employees. Many states require a higher cash wage, and some require the full minimum.

07States With Higher Minimums

Because the federal rate has not moved, most of the action is now in the states. When the Department of Labor last updated its state table (July 2026), 30 states and the District of Columbia had a minimum above $7.25, 13 matched it (counting Oklahoma, where the rate depends on employer size), 2 had a lower state rate and 5 had no state minimum wage law. Where a state rate is lower or missing, the federal rate applies to workers the federal law covers. Many cities and counties set their own minimums as well. The current list is on the Department of Labor's state minimum wage page.

08How This Page Works

Rates are the federal minimums under the Fair Labor Standards Act as published by the Department of Labor. Inflation adjustments use the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U, U.S. city average): the CPI for the month a rate took effect in the tables of individual rates, the yearly average in the year-by-year chart and the lookup, and the newest month for today; the page updates itself when each new CPI is released. Average pay and item prices come from the same BLS data behind the Hours-of-Work Price Museum. For other years and amounts, use the inflation calculator.

Prices through September 2026.

09Frequently Asked Questions

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