The 1990 minimum wage was $3.80/hr, raised from the frozen $3.35/hr rate that had held since 1981. The federal minimum wage rose twice in the 1990s overall, once at the start of the decade and once near the end, with a five-year gap in between.

Federal Minimum Wage in 1990 and Through the Decade

  • 1990: raised to $3.80/hr, effective April 1, 1990, ending the 1980s freeze.
  • 1991: raised to $4.25/hr, effective April 1, 1991, the second step of the same law.
  • 1992-1995: $4.25/hr. No change for four years.
  • 1996: raised to $4.75/hr, effective October 1, 1996.
  • 1997: raised to $5.15/hr, effective September 1, 1997.
The Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 paired a federal minimum wage increase with tax relief for small businesses, a common legislative pattern when Congress raises the wage floor.

What Drove the 1996-1997 Increase?

President Clinton signed the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, which included a two-step federal minimum wage increase taking the rate from $4.25/hr to $5.15/hr over two steps. This is the increase that's often referred to as the "Clinton-era" minimum wage increase, and $5.15/hr held as the federal rate for a full decade afterward, until the 2007-2009 increases replaced it.

How Does the 1990s Compare to Other Decades?

Two increases in ten years puts the 1990s roughly in line with the law's long-run average pace of about one increase every 4 years. It's a sharp contrast to both the freeze that preceded it in the 1980s and the freeze that's followed the 2009 increase, now well past 16 years with no federal action.

What Was the Real Value of the 1990 Minimum Wage?

$3.80/hr in 1990 had meaningfully more purchasing power than its nominal value suggests today, since decades of inflation have since eroded what any fixed dollar figure can buy. This is the same dynamic playing out with the current $7.25/hr rate, which has lost a substantial share of its real value since being set in 2009.

How Did State Minimum Wages Compare in the 1990s?

Today, most states set a minimum wage above the federal floor, but that pattern is largely a more recent development. Through most of the 1990s, far fewer states had enacted their own higher minimum wage than do today, meaning the federal rate set out above functioned as the binding minimum wage for a much larger share of the country's workforce than it does now. See our current state-by-state minimum wage table to see how differently that landscape looks today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the minimum wage in 1990?

$3.80 per hour, effective April 1, 1990, ending the nine-year freeze from the 1980s.

What was the minimum wage in 1995?

Still $4.25 per hour. No change occurred in 1995; the rate had been set in April 1991 and stayed flat until October 1996.

What law raised the minimum wage in 1996 and 1997?

The Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, signed by President Clinton, which phased the rate from $4.25/hr to $5.15/hr over two steps.

How long did the $5.15/hr rate last?

A full decade, from September 1997 until the 2007-2009 increases replaced it with the current $7.25/hr rate.

How the 1990s Compares to Surrounding Decades

Two increases in the 1990s looks modest compared to the five seen in the 1970s, but it's a marked improvement over the single increase (followed by a nine-year freeze) that defined the 1980s. See our 1980s wage freeze breakdown for the decade immediately before it.

See the complete federal minimum wage history from 1938 to 2026, or check your state's current minimum wage. For official historical data, see the US Department of Labor's minimum wage history chart.