This Was the Minimum Wage the Year You Were Born

Many of the country's lowest-earning workers got a raise in 2025. Twenty-one states raised their minimum wages in January, and while that underscores the fact that many places have instituted minimum wages higher than the federal minimum, several still use the national standard of $7.25 an hour.

The minimum wage, which emerged in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, has always been controversial — who should get it, who shouldn't, how much it should be. It also doesn't adjust for inflation, so the only way it increases is through dragged-out political negotiations that leave the lowest-earning workers little relief. A dozen presidents have raised the minimum wage 22 different times — here's what it has looked like since the beginning.

• Minimum wage: $0.25
  
• In 2025 money: $5.59

The original minimum wage was a quarter an hour. If that sounds terrible, that's because it was. That kind of pay provided less than two-thirds of the buying power of even today's paltry minimum wage — but it was still a monumental step forward. Unlike every wage earner who had ever exchanged labor for money, those now collecting that 25 cents knew at least that it couldn't get any worse. It was something, and after nearly a decade of the social, economic, and agricultural disasters of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, certainly better than nothing.

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $6.81

The very next year, as the Depression was finally drawing to a close, the minimum wage was raised by a nickel an hour to $0.30, where it would remain until the end of World War II.

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $6.86

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $6.76

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $6.07

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $5.64

By 1943, the relentless gnawing of inflation had taken its toll on what had been a nice bump in pay in 1939. The true buying power of the minimum wage was now dropping close to what had been in 1938 when it was first established under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

• Minimum wage: $0.30
  
• In 2025 money: $5.48

• Minimum wage: $0.40
  
• In 2025 money: $7.14

On Oct. 24, 1945, a month after the end of World War II, the American wage-earner got a badly needed raise. When the minimum wage was increased by a dime that year, it boosted the country's bottom salary to the highest it had even been when indexed for inflation. 

• Minimum wage: $0.40
  
• In 2025 money: $6.98

• Minimum wage: $0.40
  
• In 2025 money: $5.91

• Minimum wage: $0.40
  
• In 2025 money: $5.36

By 1948, the real buying power of the minimum wage was less than it had ever been — cratering to just $5.10 in today's money just three short years after it was raised to the highest value in its history. 

• Minimum wage: $0.40
  
• In 2025 money: $5.29

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $10.14

By 1950, the recession that followed World War II was over and America was entering an unprecedented era of prosperity and economic stability. That year, the minimum wage nearly doubled to 75 cents to reflect the rapidly expanding consumer economy and the higher national standard of living the average American enjoyed. The result was the minimum wage racing past $6, $7, and even $8 for the first time in history with the stroke of a pen. 

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $9.38

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $8.99

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $8.96

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $8.86

Just four years after the massive pay raise of 1950, the real value of the minimum wage had again been nibbled down to a representative buying power that was almost as low as it is today — 75 cents an hour wouldn't cut it for long. 

• Minimum wage: $0.75
  
• In 2025 money: $8.92

• Minimum wage: $1
  
• In 2025 money: $11.85

On Mar. 1, 1956, the minimum wage was raised by one-third, just as it had been in 1945. For the first time in history, those entering the workforce would do something on their first day that their parents would have never imagined possible when seeking work during the Depression: earning a buck an hour. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage had never had more purchasing power — more than 10 dollars with inflation — and, once again, it could buy more back then than the minimum wage could buy today at $7.25 an hour.

• Minimum wage: $1
  
• In 2025 money: $11.51

• Minimum wage: $1
  
• In 2025 money: $11.11

• Minimum wage: $1
  
• In 2025 money: $10.95

• Minimum wage: $1
  
• In 2025 money: $10.84

• Minimum wage: $1.15
  
• In 2025 money: $12.26

America's consumer economy was roaring in 1961. Before inflation had barely even whittled down the big $1 bump from 1956, the minimum wage was raised again, this time bumpingup over $12 in today's money. 

• Minimum wage: $1.15
  
• In 2025 money: $12.18

• Minimum wage: $1.25
  
• In 2025 money: $13.06

• Minimum wage: $1.25
  
• In 2025 money: $12.85

• Minimum wage: $1.25
  
• In 2025 money: $12.73

• Minimum wage: $1.25
  
• In 2025 money: $12.49

• Minimum wage: $1.40
  
• In 2025 money: $13.52

Just four years after the most recent increase, the bottom wage was lifted again, this time by 15 cents to $1.40.

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $14.91

Just one year later on Feb. 1, 1968, the minimum wage was raised to the modern equivalent of nearly $15 an hour. It represented the peak of prosperity for the American wage earner. Never before and never since has the country's workforce been able to buy so much with the lowest wage allowed by law.

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $14.28

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $13.45

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $12.77

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $12.37

• Minimum wage: $1.60
  
• In 2025 money: $11.93

• Minimum wage: $2
  
• In 2025 money: $13.63

Had the government not increased the minimum wage in 1974, It would have cratered from $13.63 in today's money all the way down to $10.91, which is still much better than today, by the way. 

Economically speaking, the 1970s were defined by runaway inflation, which is the dramatic reduction of a currency's buying power. By the middle of the decade, inflation was so high that raising the minimum wage was like bucketing water out of a leaky boat — it had to be done almost continuously for the U.S. worker to stay afloat. 

The government would raise the minimum wage every year or close to it throughout the remainder of the decade and into the early 1980s only to barely break even most years.

• Minimum wage: $2.10
  
• In 2025 money: $12.80

• Minimum wage: $2.30
  
• In 2025 money: $13.14

• Minimum wage: $2.30
  
• In 2025 money: $12.49

• Minimum wage: $2.65
  
• In 2025 money: $13.47

• Minimum wage: $2.90
  
• In 2025 money: $13.49

• Minimum wage: $3.10
  
• In 2025 money: $12.66

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $12.23

In 1981, the Reagan years began, and with them began the era of gaping economic inequality that continues to this day. Right out of the gate, Reagan gutted or eliminated virtually every major social welfare program from school lunches and Head Start to mental health and homelessness. The have-nots couldn't have imagined how bad things were about to get. The government raised the minimum wage to $3.35 — still less than $13 an hour in today's money — and then abandoned the wage earner for the remainder of the decade.

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• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $11.29

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $10.88

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $10.44

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $10.09

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $9.71

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $9.57

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $9.20

• Minimum wage: $3.35
  
• In 2025 money: $8.79

The '80s were a grueling decade for America's lowest-paid workers and poorest families — and the long-stagnant minimum wage certainly didn't help. 

• Minimum wage: $3.80
  
• In 2025 money: $9.48

When the increase finally did come nearly a decade after the last bump in 1981, minimum wage workers got a raise of only 45 cents.

• Minimum wage: $4.25
  
• In 2025 money: $10.03

Finally, less than one year later, a little more help came, but same as last time, it was only another 45 cents worth of relief.

• Minimum wage: $4.25
  
• In 2025 money: $9.78

• Minimum wage: $4.25
  
• In 2025 money: $9.47

• Minimum wage: $4.25
  
• In 2025 money: $9.23

• Minimum wage: $4.25
  
• In 2025 money: $8.98

• Minimum wage: $4.75
  
• In 2025 money: $9.77

The next bump in pay came in 1996. Even with the increase, millions of minimum-wage-earning Americans were still not making $5 an hour.

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $10.28

The U.S. minimum wage finally broke the $5 mark for the first time in history in 1997. It would hold at $5.15 through the rest of the '90s and most of the 2000s, a longer drought than even that which suffocated low-wage workers throughout the 1980s. Minimum wage workers wouldn't get a raise until Steve Jobs released the first iPhone a decade later.

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $10.12

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $9.96

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $9.69

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $9.34

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $9.24

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $9.00

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $8.83

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $8.58

• Minimum wage: $5.15
  
• In 2025 money: $8.25

In 2006, it was perfectly legal to pay American workers the equivalent of $7.84 an hour in today's money, an unsurvivable wage for the modern family. Real wages hadn't been so low since the 1940s.

• Minimum wage: $5.85
  
• In 2025 money: $9.18

The needle finally ticked up in 2007, but not by much. The bump to $5.85 represented slightly more than the dismal wage the bottom earners bring home today.

• Minimum wage: $6.55
  
• In 2025 money: $9.86

By 2008, wages had been so low for so long that $6.55 seemed like a big raise, but it still represented less than $10 an hour.

• Minimum wage: $7.25
  
• In 2025 money: $10.91

The most recent increase in 2009 didn't even bring the minimum wage back up to $11, but that's as good as it would get for the remainder of time as we know it. A dozen years later and the minimum wage is still just $7.25 an hour. That's a longer period of wage stagnation than even those of the 1980s and 2000s.

• Minimum wage: $7.25

The minimum wage today is exactly $7 more than it was when the concept first revolutionized labor in 1938. It can buy more today than it could in those waning years of the Great Depression, but not nearly as much as it could in the post-war boom years of the 1950s and '60s. 

It's been 15 years since the last federal minimum-wage increase, the longest stretch in history that America's lowest wage earners have been forced to endure without a raise.