On this day, January 24, 1950

The minimum wage in America was raised from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour. This, today, is about equivalent to a 5-dollar an hour pay rate. This makes sense considering that the federal minimum wage was only 5.15 an hour up until 2007, when it was raised a whole 70 cents. This implies that the minimum wage in America has not changed much proportionally in over a century, and it is still not considered to be a living wage. A living wage would be the minimum hourly pay necessary to achieve a decent standard of living in a certain space. A minimum wage on the other hand is the minimum hourly wage set by law, and unfortunately, that amount is often way below a living wage. That might explain why so many people in the US are living below the national poverty line.