Do you want to know the good news about the minimum wage? In most parts of the country, it is practically irrelevant.
The last federal minimum wage increase went into effect on July 24, 2009, raising it from $6.55 an hour to $7.25. We have experienced nearly 50 percent inflation since then, yet the minimum wage has stayed the same. Even in 2009, only 4.9 percent of workers were actually paid $7.25 an hour, and that number has dropped to 1.1 percent today. This is good news: It means that the minimum wage is so low relative to the median wage that it is causing few economic distortions.
