The federal minimum wage is at its lowest value in 77 years 

Real value of the federal minimum wage (March 2026 dollars)

Notes: All values in March 2026 dollars, adjusted using the chained CPI-U since 2000, extended retroactively to the CPI-U-RS (1978-1999), CPI-U-X1 (1967–1977), and CPI-U (1966 and before) following the methodology in EPI State of Working America Data Library (EPI 2026b).
Source: Economic Policy InstituteGet the dataDownload image