Since 1938 the federal minimum wage
has been raised 22 times. From 1949 to 1968
the real value of the minimum wage (in 2011
dollars) rose rapidly from $3.78 to $10.34, as
shown in Figure 1. At $7.25 per hour, the minimum
wage today in real dollars is 85 percent
greater than the original benchmark, and just
below its average for the past 60 years of $7.59.
Since the 1970s, the federal minimum wage
has fluctuated around roughly 40 percent of
the average private sector hourly wage.