The U.S government, as well as individual state governments, are in charge of regulating wages to ensure workers are being fairly compensated.
As such, there has been a federal minimum wage since 1938, when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the first federal minimum wage was 25 cents per hour.
The U.S Department of Labor says the minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009, but MIT’s Living Wage Calculator reports the average living wage as of 2019 is $16.54.
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What is the minimum wage in each state?:Somewhere between $5.15 and $16 an hour: A list of the minimum wage in every state
Two states, Georgia and Wyoming, have a minimum wage of $5.15 for employers exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the Department of Labor. Most companies, though, use the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Many other states use the federal minimum wage established by the U.S. government.
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour applies to any state without its own established minimum wage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The following states all enforce a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour f, according to the Department of Labor:
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