A minimum wage worker has lost almost $300,000 since 1968 because of the failure of Congress and the President to make sure that the minimum wage keeps pace with inflation.
That’s according to a report released today by Ralph Nader’s Center for Study of Responsive Law.
Since 1968, the minimum wage has lost nearly one third of its inflation adjusted value.
Had the federal minimum wage simply kept pace with inflation in that time, it would stand at nearly $10.70 per hour today instead of the present federal minimum wage of $7.25.
“It is time for a raise,” Nader said. “Thirty million Americans can’t afford to wait any longer. They should be earning at least what they did 45 years ago, adjusted for inflation. It is time to catch up with 1968.”
Seventy-five years ago this month, on June 25, 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, establishing the first lasting federal minimum wage in the United States.
“Every year that Congress and the President fail to raise the minimum wage, they are effectively telling hard-working low-wage workers throughout this country that they are worth less than they were the year before,” said the report’s author, Jeff Musto of the Center’s Time for a Raise project.
Last year, 3.6 million minimum wage workers were deprived of about $15.3 billion in wages.
In the same time that the minimum wage has lost nearly one third of its value, CEO compensation has skyrocketed over 900 percent.
Last year’s highest compensated CEO, John Hammergren of McKesson Corp., received $131 million. In 15 minutes, he made more than a minimum wage worker does in a year.
In an hour, he made $63,000; $10,000 more than the median annual household income in the U.S.
The top 100 highest compensated CEOs all made over $15 million last year, or the equivalent of over $7,000 per hour.
“It is shameful that Congress has allowed even government contractors’ CEOs’ compensation to reach dizzying heights, while low-wage workers struggle just to afford basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, and health care,” Nader said.
“No more waiting, no more excuses – Congress needs to act to raise the minimum wage to at least $10.50 per hour, and they need to act now! The AFL-CIO also needs to make this cause a high action priority.”