Doug Hall, Economic Policy Institute, May 19, 2011

Since the most recent increase in the federal minimum wage (from $6.55 to $7.25) nearly two years ago, inflation has been eating away at its buying power. The federal minimum wage was at its highest mark in 1968, worth more than 15 percent more than it is today. Since then, its value has followed a downward trend, interrupted by periodic upward adjustments when Congress took action, but never returning to its full previous value.

Today’s minimum-wage workers are better educated and more productive than their predecessors, but their wages are less adequate for meeting their families’ needs. A worker employed full-time at minimum wage earns $15,080, nearly $3,500 less than the federal poverty level for a family of three.