What is the current minimum wage where you live?
Data Scavenger Hunt
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above:
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. How many states have a $7.25 minimum wage?
What is the highest minimum wage in the U.S.?
What is the minimum wage where you live?
According to the data from the map above how many states have a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage?
What geographic patterns do you notice in the map of states with the lowest ($7.25) minimum wage?
Big Brain Questions
Answer these questions by yourself using your brain and the links below:
List one thing the chart makes you wonder:
Bernie Sanders and other progressives want to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and hour. Economists have found that modest raises in the minimum wage does not tend to have negative impacts on overall employment. For example, according to a study by the Congressional Budget Office raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would increase wages for at least 17 million people, but also put 1.4 million Americans out of work. Explain whether we should raise the minimum wage?
Explain whether there should there be a national maximum wage?
What would a yearly salary be on the current $7.25 federal minimum wage (40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, $7.25 an hour)?
Because of federalism, the federal government has rules, and different states also have different rules. It’s been said that federalism allows Americans to “vote with their feet.” Regarding minimum wage, what does this quote mean and do you think you will vote with your feet one day?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Complete this form to get the contact information for all your federal, state and local representatives. Then contact your state legislators and governor and let them know what you think about the current minimum wage in your state. Share their response in class.
Get Creative
In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at $0.25 an hour ($4.81 in 2021 dollars). Its purchasing power (what you could actually buy with that money) peaked in 1968, at $1.60 ($12.47 in 2021 dollars). Since 2009, it has been $7.25 per hour. Imagine the U.S. adopted a maximum wage of $1,000 dollars an hour (that’s approximately $2 million a year working full time), and a minimum wage of $20 an hour (that’s approximately $40,000 a year working full time). Make a creative response to this scenario.
Learn More
The Department of Labor has an interactive map of minimum wages in the United States.
