Federal Minimum Wage, 1938 2013 Shown in nominal (not adjusted for inflation) dollars and 2013 (infation-adjusted) dollars $10. 00
Perhaps surprisingly, not very many people earn minimum wage, and they make up a smaller share of the workforce than they used to. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year 1.532 million hourly workers earned the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour; nearly 1.8 million more earned less than that because they fell under one of several exemptions (tipped employees, full-time students, certain disabled workers and others), for a total of 3.3 million hourly workers at or below the federal minimum.
Federal Minimum Wage, 1938 2013  | Shown in nominal (not adjusted for inflation) dollars and 2013 (infation-adjusted) dollars  | $10. 00  | Minimum wage dollars)  | (adjusted to 2013 dollars)  | a  | $7.25  | Minimum wage  | $3.40  | (una djusted) wage  | 2  | $.25  | a  | 1940  | 1950  | 1960  | 1970  | 1980  | 1990  | 2000  | 2010  | Note: Wage rates adjusted for inflation using implicit price deflator for personal consumption expenditures.  | Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Pew Research Center analysis  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 