The current minimum wage stays at $7.25/hr because the rate only changes when Congress passes a new law raising it, and no such law has passed since 2007. Here's what that actually means in practice, and where wage growth has come from instead.
Why Hasn't the Current Minimum Wage Increased Since 2009?
Unlike some state minimum wages, the federal rate has no automatic inflation adjustment built into the Fair Labor Standards Act. Every increase in the law's history has required a specific act of Congress, signed into law by the President. Since the last such law passed in 2007 (phasing the rate up to $7.25/hr by 2009), multiple bills to raise the federal minimum wage have been introduced in Congress, including proposals to raise it to $15/hr, but none have passed both the House and Senate and been signed into law.
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the federal minimum wage by statute; there is no mechanism in the law for it to rise automatically with inflation, unlike the annual cost-of-living adjustments many state minimum wage laws now include.
Has Congress Tried to Raise It?
Yes, repeatedly. Various proposals to raise the federal minimum wage, including bills that would phase it up to $15/hr over several years, have been introduced in multiple sessions of Congress. Passing a federal minimum wage increase requires majority support in both the House and Senate plus either the President's signature or a veto override, a high bar that has not been cleared since 2007.
Why Is It Harder to Change Than a State Minimum Wage?
A state legislature can raise its minimum wage through an ordinary majority vote in the state house and senate, and a number of states have also written an automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment directly into state law, so the rate rises each year without a new vote at all. In some states, voters can bypass the legislature entirely through a ballot initiative. The federal minimum wage has none of these paths. Because it's set by a single national statute, a change requires majority support in both chambers of Congress, agreement between the House and Senate on identical bill language, and either the President's signature or a two-thirds override vote in both chambers if the President vetoes it. That is a higher and slower bar than any single state's process, which helps explain why state minimum wages have continued to move in most years while the federal rate has not moved since 2009.
What Do Supporters and Opponents Say in the Debate Over Raising It?
Congressional debate over raising the federal minimum wage has followed similar lines across most sessions since 2009. Supporters of an increase generally argue that $7.25/hr has lost purchasing power to inflation since it took effect, that it no longer reflects the cost of housing, food, and other basic expenses in most parts of the country, and that a higher federal floor would raise incomes for workers in the states that have not raised their own minimum wage. Opponents generally argue that a mandated increase, particularly a large one applied uniformly across a country with very different costs of living, would raise labor costs for small businesses and could lead some employers to reduce hours, cut staff, or automate certain positions, especially in lower-cost regions where $7.25/hr goes further than it does in expensive metro areas. Both sets of arguments have been raised repeatedly in committee hearings and floor debates without a resulting bill clearing both chambers of Congress.
Is a Federal Increase Scheduled for the Future?
No. There is no federal law currently on the books that schedules a future increase, unlike the FLSA amendments that phased in the 2007-2009 increases years in advance. Any change requires new legislation starting from scratch, passed and signed the same way every previous increase has been.
If the Federal Rate Isn't Moving, Where Has Wage Growth Come From?
Nearly all recent minimum wage growth for low-wage workers in the US has come from state and local action instead of federal law. Most states now set their own minimum wage above the $7.25/hr federal floor, and a majority of those states either raised their rate through new state legislation, a voter-approved ballot initiative, or an automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment written into state law. See our list of every state that raised its minimum wage in 2026 for a current example. The federal rate remains the effective floor only in the states that haven't set their own higher minimum.
How Has the State and City Patchwork Filled the Gap?
With the federal rate frozen since 2009, most of the country's minimum wage growth has happened at the state and city level instead. A large majority of states now set a minimum wage above $7.25/hr, some by a modest margin and some substantially higher, and many major cities layer an additional local minimum wage on top of their state's rate. This patchwork means the effective minimum wage a given worker earns depends heavily on where they live and work rather than on the federal rate alone. See our state-by-state minimum wage guide for current rates in every state, and our complete timeline of federal minimum wage increases for how the federal rate reached $7.25/hr in the first place.
How Does This Compare to Past Gaps?
The current 16-plus-year gap since 2009 is the longest in the federal minimum wage's history. The previous longest stretch was about 9 years, from 1981 to 1990. Every other gap in the law's history has been shorter still. See our complete federal minimum wage history for the full timeline.
What Would It Take for the Federal Rate to Change?
A bill would need to pass both chambers of Congress and either be signed by the President or have a presidential veto overridden by a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Given that the current $7.25/hr rate has already gone over 16 years without an increase, any future increase is likely to arrive the same way past ones have: as a multi-year phased schedule rather than a single jump.
Do Federal Contractors Have a Different Minimum Wage?
In some cases, yes. Presidents have used executive orders to set a separate, higher minimum wage that applies specifically to workers on certain federal contracts, rather than to the workforce generally. Because these contractor-specific rates are established by executive order rather than by the FLSA itself, they can be adjusted, expanded, or rescinded by a later administration without requiring an act of Congress, and the details have in fact changed across different administrations. This is a narrower, separate mechanism from the general federal minimum wage discussed throughout this article, which still requires new legislation to change.
Could States Set Their Own Rate Instead of Waiting on Congress?
They already have, and most have. Unlike the federal rate, a state minimum wage can be raised by state legislation, a voter-approved ballot initiative, or an automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment written directly into state law, none of which require federal action. This is exactly why state-level increases have continued every year even while the federal rate has stood still since 2009.
Does This Affect Every Worker Equally?
No. Workers in states that have raised their own minimum wage above $7.25/hr are unaffected by the federal freeze in practice, since their state's higher rate is what legally applies. Workers in the states that still default to the federal floor are the ones most directly affected by the lack of a federal increase, since no state-level backstop exists for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the federal minimum wage still $7.25?
Because no new federal law raising it has passed Congress since 2007. The rate only changes through new legislation, not automatically.
Has the federal minimum wage ever gone this long without an increase before?
No. The current gap since 2009 is the longest in the law's history, surpassing the previous record of about 9 years between 1981 and 1990.
Are states raising their minimum wage instead?
Yes. Most states have set their own minimum wage above the federal floor, and 22 states raised their rate again in 2026 alone.
Could the federal minimum wage reach $15/hr?
Only if Congress passes new legislation to that effect and it's signed into law. Bills proposing this have been introduced but have not passed as of 2026.
Why is it harder to raise the federal minimum wage than a state minimum wage?
Because a state can raise its rate through ordinary state legislation, a ballot initiative, or an automatic cost-of-living adjustment, while the federal rate requires a bill to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the President or survive a veto override.
Do federal contractors get paid more than $7.25/hr?
Some do. Executive orders have set separate, higher minimum wage rates for workers on certain federal contracts under various administrations, though these rates are distinct from the general federal minimum wage and can change without congressional action.
For official federal wage law, see the US Department of Labor's FLSA page. See your state's current minimum wage, which may already be well above the federal floor.
