Living on Minimum Wage Is Getting Harder [GRAPH]

Value of minimum wage lower than it was 50 years ago

ByABC News
September 12, 2013, 9:44 AM
Fast food workers and their supporters picket outside a Burger King restaurant in Los Angeles on August 29, 2013.
Fast food workers and their supporters picket outside a Burger King restaurant in Los Angeles on August 29, 2013.
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Sept. 12, 2013— -- It’s more difficult for U.S. workers who earn minimum wage to make a living than it was nearly five decades ago.

The nominal value of the federal minimum wage has risen from $1.60 in 1968 to $7.25 today. But real value of that wage, adjusted for inflation, has dropped by 26 percent over that span. The value peaked in 1968 at $10.70, but is now $7.90.

Here’s a chart illustrating how the minimum wage has changed over the past 50 years.

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