In 1989, Toshiba patented a microchip-controlled vacuum brewer in which the brewing of the coffee (including the grinding of the coffee beans) is performed automatically based on electronic input of the number of cups and strength desired.
A history of the minimum wage since 1938. The grey line shows the minimum wage, unadjusted for inflation, whereas the blue line shows you what it would be worth in 2012. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt first created the minimum wage in 1938, it was 25 cents. Adjusted for inflation, that would be worth $4.07 today. The minimum wage had its lowest buying power in 1948, when it was worth about $3.81 in today's dollars. It had its highest buying power in 1968, when it was worth about $10.56. At $7.25 in 2012, our current minimum wage is in the middle of those two extremes.
Return to top. Minimum wage laws set legal minimums for the hourly wages paid to certain groups of workers. In the United States, amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act have increased the federal minimum wage from $.25 per hour in 1938 to $5.15 in 1997.Minimum wage laws were invented in Australia and New Zealand with the purpose of guaranteeing a minimum standard of living for unskilled workers.aising the minimum wage increases both the probability that a poor family will escape poverty through higher wages and the probability that another nonpoor family will become poor as minimum wage increases price it out of the labor market.