Federal minimum wage increases have happened 23 times since the rate was created in 1938, most recently in 2009. Here's every increase in order, the pattern behind them, and why the current gap is the longest in the law's history.
The Complete Federal Minimum Wage Increases Timeline
- 1938: $0.25/hr, established by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- 1939: $0.30/hr
- 1945: $0.40/hr
- 1950: $0.75/hr
- 1956: $1.00/hr
- 1961: $1.15/hr
- 1963: $1.25/hr
- 1967: $1.40/hr
- 1968: $1.60/hr
- 1974: $2.00/hr
- 1975: $2.10/hr
- 1976: $2.30/hr
- 1978: $2.65/hr
- 1979: $2.90/hr
- 1980: $3.10/hr
- 1981: $3.35/hr
- 1990: $3.80/hr
- 1991: $4.25/hr
- 1996: $4.75/hr
- 1997: $5.15/hr
- 2007: $5.85/hr
- 2008: $6.55/hr
- 2009: $7.25/hr, the current rate, effective July 24, 2009
The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed in 1938, was the first federal law to establish a minimum wage in the United States, alongside overtime pay and child labor restrictions.
What Pattern Do Federal Minimum Wage Increases Follow?
Nearly every increase came in a multi-step sequence passed by a single act of Congress, then phased in over one to three years rather than jumping straight to the new rate. The 2007-2009 increases are a good example: Congress passed one law in 2007 that raised the rate in three annual steps, $5.85 in 2007, $6.55 in 2008, and $7.25 in 2009, rather than all at once. The 1990-1991 and 1996-1997 increases followed the same two-step pattern.
How Often Has the Federal Rate Historically Changed?
Since 1938, the federal minimum wage has gone an average of roughly 4 years between increases. The current gap, from 2009 to 2026, is by far the longest in the law's history at over 16 years, more than four times the historical average. The next-longest gap before this one was the freeze from 1981 to 1990, just under 9 years.
Why Have Gaps Between Increases Grown Longer?
Looking at the spacing between all 23 increases, a clear shift shows up starting in 1981. In the four decades between 1938 and 1980, no gap between increases ever stretched past six years, the rate moved roughly every one to six years through the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Starting with the freeze that began in 1981, multi-year gaps became far more common. Several separate gaps since 1981 have run five years or longer, and the current one, open since the rate hit $7.25/hr in July 2009, is the longest of them all by a wide margin. Whatever the reason behind any single gap, whether it's a change in which party controls Congress, disagreement over the size or pace of an increase, or a lack of political will to bring a bill to a vote, the broader pattern across the last four-plus decades is consistent: increases have become less frequent, and the gaps between them have grown.
Which Increases Were the Biggest?
In percentage terms, some of the earliest increases were the largest relative to the existing rate: the jump from $0.25/hr to $0.30/hr in 1939 was a 20% increase in a single step. In dollar terms, the 1990 and 1991 increases (from $3.35/hr to $4.25/hr combined) and the 2007-2009 increases (from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr combined) rank among the largest total increases in the law's history.
How Is the Federal Minimum Wage Actually Raised?
Unlike many state minimum wage laws, the federal rate has no automatic adjustment mechanism built in. Every one of the 23 increases in the timeline above required an act of Congress: a bill amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed by both the House and Senate, then signed into law. Nothing in the federal statute ties the $7.25/hr rate to the Consumer Price Index, average wage growth, or any other economic indicator, so it never adjusts on its own. That's a meaningful structural difference from a growing number of state minimum wage laws, which do index automatically to inflation and rise on a predictable schedule without a new bill each year. At the federal level, by contrast, the rate stays exactly where Congress last set it until Congress passes a new law, which is the direct, structural reason the $7.25/hr figure has held for more than sixteen years regardless of how prices have moved in the meantime.
What Happens to the Federal Minimum Wage's Value Between Increases?
Every figure in the timeline above is a nominal rate, the dollar amount written into the law at the time, not adjusted for inflation. Because the federal rate only moves when Congress passes a new law, its real, inflation-adjusted purchasing power erodes gradually in every year that passes without an increase, then resets upward whenever a new rate takes effect. Over the law's history, this has produced significant swings in what the federal minimum wage is actually worth: value lost during long freezes like 1981-1990 and the current stretch since 2009, and value regained in the years immediately following each new increase. Because $7.25/hr has now been the nominal rate for over sixteen years while the overall cost of living has continued to rise, that rate buys measurably less today than it did when it first took effect in 2009. For the detailed purchasing-power analysis behind that trend, see our minimum wage history page.
How to Use This Timeline for Research
Each entry above lists the exact effective date and rate as set by the relevant amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, useful for calculating what a specific historical wage was worth at a given point in time, or for identifying which Congressional session passed a particular increase. Combined with our purchasing-power analysis, which tracks how much value the current $7.25/hr rate has lost since 2009, this timeline gives the full nominal history of the federal wage floor from its creation to today.
Does the Exempt Salary Threshold Follow the Same Pattern?
No. The federal exempt salary threshold, the minimum salary required for the FLSA's white-collar overtime exemption, is set through separate Department of Labor rulemaking rather than the same statutory amendments that raise the hourly minimum wage. That's why the exempt threshold can change independently of, and on a different schedule than, the federal minimum wage itself. See our exempt salary threshold guide for the current figure.
How This Timeline Relates to State Minimum Wage Increases
Every entry above reflects only the federal rate. State minimum wage law moves on an entirely separate track, and most states have raised their own rate far more recently and far more often than the federal timeline shows, since state legislatures and CPI-indexing laws aren't bound by the same Congressional process. See our list of every state that raised its minimum wage in 2026 alone for a direct comparison to how static the federal side of this timeline has become.
How State and Local Minimum Wages Have Filled the Gap
Because the federal rate has not moved since 2009, it has become largely disconnected from what most minimum-wage workers in the US actually earn. A majority of states now set their own minimum wage above $7.25/hr, and many cities and counties layer a local minimum on top of the state rate. Some of those state laws include the automatic inflation-indexing the federal law lacks, so they rise on a predictable annual schedule without a new bill each time. The result is a widening gap between the flat federal wage floor shown in the timeline above and the wage floor that actually applies to most workers in the country. See our state-by-state minimum wage rates page for the current minimum in every state.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times has the federal minimum wage increased?
23 times since the Fair Labor Standards Act created it in 1938, most recently in 2009.
What was the first federal minimum wage?
$0.25 per hour, established by the original 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.
When was the last federal minimum wage increase?
July 24, 2009, when the rate reached its current level of $7.25/hr, the final step of a three-part increase passed by Congress in 2007.
Why hasn't the federal minimum wage increased since 2009?
No new federal law raising it has passed Congress since 2007. See our full explanation of why the federal rate has stayed flat.
How is the federal minimum wage actually changed?
Only by an act of Congress. A bill amending the Fair Labor Standards Act has to pass the House and Senate and be signed into law; there's no automatic inflation adjustment built into the federal rate the way there is in a number of state minimum wage laws.
Do states have to follow the federal minimum wage?
No. States are free to set their own minimum wage above the federal $7.25/hr rate, and most now do. See our state-by-state minimum wage rates for the current rate in every state.
For the purchasing power this flat $7.25/hr rate has lost to inflation since 2009, see our full minimum wage history page. For the current federal rate and FLSA rules, see our federal minimum wage guide. For official records, see the US Department of Labor's federal minimum wage history chart.
