Question of the Day: What percent of hourly workers in the U.S. earn the federal minimum wage?

$7.25 per hour is the wage floor for most hourly workers. How common is that minimum wage?

Answer: 1.3% (the smallest percentage since data collection began in 1979)

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Questions:

• How does earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour compare to the living costs in different parts of the US?
• How has the purchasing power of the federal minimum wage changed over time?
• Many states have set their minimum wage higher than the federal rate. Explore the reasons behind this and discuss the impact on workers and businesses.

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (USA Facts):

• As of 2022, 1.02 million hourly workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. That’s 1.3% of all hourly workers, the smallest percentage since data collection began in 1979. 

• Since its establishment in 1938 at $0.25 an hour, Congress has increased the federal minimum wage 22 times, with the most recent increase to $7.25 occurring in July 2009. After adjusting for inflation, the federal minimum wage was highest in 1968, equating to $14.01 in 2023 dollars.

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To give your students an edge when it comes to planning their finances, check out NGPF’s Budgeting unit.

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