The Economic Policy Institute has some bad news for your hourly workers.
The minimum wage — raised to $7.25 an hour just last July — buys substantially less than it did more than 40 years ago.
According to EPI research, when adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage was worth $8.54 per hour in 1968, its all-time high. That’s $1.29 more buying power than today’s rate.
Things could be worse, though — in 2006, according to EPI, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage was a paltry $5.48.
EPI is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on low- and middle-income workers. The research is part of EPI’s biannual report, The State of Working America, which will be published online in January.
