- While the recent US Pandemic Relief bill will increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25/hr to $15/hr by 2025, increases aligned with worker productivity gains since the 1970s could’ve yielded a $24/hr minimum wage by now.
- Following the Great Depression, Congress repeatedly increased the minimum wage in line with US worker productivity, resulting in an inflation-adjusted minimum of $12 by 1968.
- However, these productivity-related increases stopped after the 1960s.
- Adjusted for inflation, the current minimum wage is lower than it was in 1950.
