when was the national minimum wage last raised
Minimum wage in the United States The federal minimum wage in the United States was reset to its current rate of $7.25 per hour in July 2009.[10] Some U.S. territories (such as American Samoa) are exempt. Some types of labor are also exempt: employers may pay tipped labor a minimum of $2.13 per hour, as long as the hour wage plus tip income equals at least the minimum wage. Persons under the age of 20 may be paid $4.25 an hour for the first 90 calendar days of employment (sometimes known as a youth, teen, or training wage) unless a higher state minimum exists.[12] The 2009 increase was the last of three steps of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which was signed into law as a rider to the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, a bill that also contained almost $5 billion in tax cuts for small businesses.
Minimum wage in the United States Minimum wage legislation emerged at the end of the nineteenth century from the desire to end sweated labor which had developed in the wake of industrialization.[17] Sweatshops employed large numbers of women and young workers, paying them what were considered nonliving wages that did not allow workers to afford the necessaries of life.[18] Besides substandard wages, sweating was also associated with long work hours and unsanitary work conditions.[19] From the 1890s to the 1920s, during the Progressive Era, a time of social activists and political reform across the United States, progressive reformers, womenâ€™s organizations, religious figures, academics, and politicians all played an important role in getting state minimum wage laws passed throughout the United States.[20]