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Adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, is the federal minimum wage now higher or lower than when it was first enacted in 1938?

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In 1938, the 75th Congress and Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted a law that required all employers to pay a minimum wage to most employees "engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce." This law set that wage at $0.25 per hour. Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to $4.34 in 2017 dollars. Since 1938, various federal laws have increased the minimum wage more than 20 times. The latest increase, in July of 2009, brought the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.

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