Setting high standards for a federal minimum wage Raising the wage to two-thirds of the national median wage would lift pay for nearly 40 million workers • Ben Zipperer • May 21, 2026
Key takeaways:
- The federal minimum wage is at its lowest real value in 77 years. Frozen at $7.25 since 2009, the federal minimum wage has lost 30% of its purchasing power during this 17-year freeze.
- Setting the federal minimum wage at two-thirds of the national median wage would raise pay for 39.6 million workers in 2030, about 1 in 4 of the wage-earning workforce.
- The policy would move the federal floor meaningfully toward one definition of a living wage, meeting EPI’s Family Budget Calculator thresholds in half of U.S. counties for a single adult working full time. But it falls short for many families, meaning that policies to strengthen unionization, provide a more robust safety net, and keep unemployment low remain essential.
- Decades of economic research support this two-thirds benchmark, finding little to no employment loss from ambitious minimum wage increases.
- Indexing the federal minimum wage to median wage growth would lock in these gains. Median wages typically outpace prices, so median wage indexing would prevent the kind of decades-long slide that has eroded the current floor.
Setting a minimum based on the median wage would obviate the need for the need to change the law to effect a rising minimum. Unfortunately, our lagging wages make this less satisfactory than it would be with a fairer economy. jz
This list is only for announcements, so you may not post. To contact the list manager, write to junez [at] njfac.org
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