When was the minimum wage first established, and how often does it go up?

It's been raised multiple times - and somewhat erratically - since Congress first passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 as part of New Deal legislation. Referred to by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as "the most far-reaching, farsighted program for the benefit of workers every adopted in this or any other country," the law hinged on the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce. It established a 25-cent minimum wage (about $4 today) and marked the first time employers were legally required to pay workers overtime for certain hourly jobs). The minimum wage last went up in 2007 - from $5.15 to $7.25 - the first increase in a decade.

The chart at left, by CNN Money, nicely illustrates the history of the minimum wage in actual dollars (nominal value) vs. today's inflation-adjusted dollars (real value). In 1948, the minimum wage reached its lowest buying power - worth about $3.80 in today's dollars. From there, though, it rose significantly, and by 1968 had reached it's highest buying power, at more than $10.50 in today's dollars. (In other words, the $1.60 rate that minimum wage workers received in 1968 was worth a lot more than the $7.25 they earn now).

Today the minimum wage is about midday between those two extremes, and raising it to $9 would put it back to what itvwas worth in the early 1980s.

How do minimum wage laws differ from state to state?

While $7.25 is the national baseline, individual states can set higher rates. Currently 18 states have minimum wages above $7.25, including California (at $8), where efforts are underway to increase it. At $9.19 an hour, the State of Washington has the nation's highest rate. Four states actually have minimum wages below the national rate, but those rates are essentially defunct since employers must still defer to the higher rate. Click on the map at right to search through a Department of Labor interactive map of individual state rates.

How does our minimum wage compare to rates in other wealthy nations (and what does it tell us about relative income inequality)?

The U.S. trails a number of the world's other wealthy nations, with Australia leading the charge at more than $15 (a number of industrialized countries like Germany don't have a minimum wage). The following map is based on figure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (for countries where this data is available). Click on each shaded country to see its minimum wage (in U.S. dollars) as well as that wage as it compares to the median full-time wage of that nation's workforce. The latter figure is one indicator of the gap between a nation's lowest earners and those who earn roughly at the midpoint of the spectrum. Using that measure, the U.S. minimum wage is less than 40 percent of its median full-time wage, showing a significant degree of economic inequality. In other words - the gap between the lowest earners and the middle earners is substantial.

Audio and Video Clips

ABC News explores the issue and its opposing sides

KQED Forum 30 minute segment on the the politics and economics of the proposed minimum wage increases, and the impacts on workers and businesses:

Stephen Colbert on the need for a federal maximum wage:

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