significantly higher minimum wage rate. It was expected to rise to at least £9 per hour by 2020, although the actual figure set for April 2020 is £8.72. United States In the United States, statutory minimum wages were first introduced nationally in 1938. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is the current federal minimum wage law of the United States. It was signed into law on May 25, 2007 as a rider to the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007. The act implemented three increases to the federal minimum wage—from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 per hour on July 24, 2007, to $6.55 per hour on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 an hour on July 24, 2009. Nearly all states within the United States have minimum wage laws; Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee are the only states yet to set a minimum wage law. As of July 24, 2009, U.S. federal law requires a minimum wage of at least $7.25 per hour. Just over 5% of all hourly-paid workers (or approximately 1% of the total U.S. population) earn an hourly wage at or below the minimum wage. Washington, D.C. has the highest minimum wage of any district in the U.S. at $14.00 per hour. Washington and Massachusetts have the highest minimum wage of any state in the U.S. at $12.00 per hour as of January 1, 2019; Oregon has the third highest at $11.25 per hour. Then New York (state) and Colorado with $11.10 per hour. The next highest state wage rates are in Arizona, California, and Maine at $11.00 per hour, and then Vermont at $10.78 per hour. In addition to federal and state minimum wage laws, the US also has citywide minimum wage laws ($15.59 in San Francisco). According to the Economic Policy Institute, the minimum wage in the United States would have been $18.28 in 2013 if the minimum wage kept pace with labor productivity. To adjust for increased rates of worker productivity in the United States, raising the minimum wage to $22 (or more) an hour has been presented. International Labour Organization International Labour Organization insists "minimum wage fixing" for rights of labours and has adopted Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928, Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 and Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 following up these former Conventions. See also Average worker's wage Economic