Center on Budget and Policy Priorities posted a story on movement in the Senate to change the minimum wage. When the minimum wage is standardized to 2013 dollars, it is clear that the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. The dollar is worth less.
They write:
“The Senate is soon expected to consider a proposal to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 in three annual increments and then index it to inflation. The proposal — the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 (FMWA), introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) — also would raise the subminimum wage paid to those who also receive tips, which has been frozen at $2.13 for over two decades. The FMWA would provide low-wage workers with a much-needed boost to their paychecks: today’s minimum wage is 22 percent below its late 1960s peak, after adjusting for inflation. It also would help offset some of the unfavorable trends facing low-wage workers, including stagnant or falling real wages, too little upward mobility, and a deep deficit of bargaining power that leaves them solidly on the “have-not” side of the inequality divide.”

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