when was the minimum wage established in the us
1938
title: Minimum wage in the United States text: Minimum wage in the United States The minimum wage in the United States is set by US labor law and a range of state and local laws. Employers generally have to pay workers the highest minimum wage prescribed by federal, state, and local law. Since July 24, 2009, the federal government has mandated a nationwide minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. As of January 2018, there were 29 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum. From 2017 to 2018, eight states increased their minimum wage levels through automatic adjustments, while increases in eleven other states occurred through title: Minimum wage in the United States text: Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, as well as the California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach, San Jose, Richmond, and Oakland. In 2016, the District of Columbia Council passed a minimum wage ordinance that included a union waiver, but Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed it. Later that year, the council approved an increase without the union waiver. The federal minimum wage was introduced in 1938 at the rate of $0.25 per hour ($4.78 in 2018 dollars). By 1950 the minimum wage had risen to $0.75 per hour. The minimum wage had its highest purchasing power in 1968, when it was $1.60 title: Minimum wage law text: Convention, 1951 and Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 following up these former Conventions. Minimum wage law Minimum wage law is the body of law which prohibits employers from hiring employees or workers for less than a given hourly, daily or monthly minimum wage. More than 90% of all countries have some kind of minimum wage legislation. Until recently, minimum wage laws were usually very tightly focused. In the U.S. and Great Britain, for example, they applied only to women and children. Only after the Great Depression did many industrialized economies extend them to the general work force. Even then, the title: Minimum wage law text: Minimum wage law Minimum wage law is the body of law which prohibits employers from hiring employees or workers for less than a given hourly, daily or monthly minimum wage. More than 90% of all countries have some kind of minimum wage legislation. Until recently, minimum wage laws were usually very tightly focused. In the U.S. and Great Britain, for example, they applied only to women and children. Only after the Great Depression did many industrialized economies extend them to the general work force. Even then, the laws were often specific to certain industries. In France, for example, they were title: Minimum wage law text: 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,