WASHINGTON – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Ranking Member of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), today released a fact sheet on the federal minimum wage, just ahead of the seventh anniversary of the last minimum wage increase.

The fact sheet shows that the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker in 2015 was only $15,080. For a single parent with two children, this is about $4,000 below the poverty line ($19,096).

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. 

“A higher minimum wage would increase the pay of millions of low-wage workers and reduce poverty—without significant job losses,” said JEC Ranking Member Carolyn B. Maloney. “It’s long past time to give millions of workers a badly needed raise.”

The fact sheet provides a range of statistics on the characteristics of minimum wage workers and those who would benefit from an increase. It also provides information on the federal tipped minimum wage, which has not been increased since 1991 and stands at $2.13 an hour.