Since the 2009 increase in the minimum wage, its real value has fallen by 9 percent—$1,580 for a full-time, year-round worker. Since its peak in 1968, the federal minimum wage has lost one-third of its value. A full-time minimum wage worker in 1968 earned $22,667 in 2015 dollars. If the value of the minimum wage had stayed the same, a minimum wage worker today would earn an additional $7,587.