The federal minimum wage increases by 11 percent, to $7.25 an hour from $6.55 on Friday, July 24. The federal minimum wage increase is projected to result in an extra $120 a month in the pockets of some 2 million U.S. workers with annual incomes of less than $15,000.
“This well-deserved increase will help workers better provide for their families in the face of today's economic challenges,” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said in a press release. “I am especially pleased that the change will benefit working women, who make up two-thirds of minimum-wage earners.”
According to the Department of Labor, the increase will directly benefit workers in 30 states where the state minimum wage is currently at or below the federal minimum wage, or there is no state minimum wage. These states are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Friday’s raise represents the third and final increase in the federal minimum wage provided for in the Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The Act increased the minimum wage in three steps: to $5.85 per hour effective July 24, 2007; to $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008; and now to $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.
What is $120 a Month Worth? The Department of Labor says that the extra $120 a month realized from the minimum wage increase “is more than a week's worth of groceries for an average family of four or more than one week's utility bills,” and will buy “three tanks of gas for a small car,” or pay for “replacing all the light bulbs in a typical home with compact fluorescent light bulbs.”
Adjusted for inflation, the new $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage is effectively about 25 percent less than it was in the late 1960s.
Also See:
About the Federal Minimum Wage
Economic Stimulus Help for Families, Individuals and Businesses
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