United States minimum wage
Statutory federal minimum hourly wage for covered non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
| Current value | 7.25 USD/hour |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2009-07-24 |
| Official source | Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, section 6(a)(1)(C), codified at 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)(C), as amended by the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 (Title VIII of Pub. L. 110-28, 121 Stat. 188) - U.S. Code text published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
FEDERAL FLOOR ONLY - this is a federal/sub-national matrix. 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1) sets the rate at '$7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day' (i.e. 24 months after the 60th day following 25 May 2007), which is 24 July 2009. It has NOT been increased since; as of 2026-07-20 no amending statute has been enacted and the rate is now the longest unchanged period in the FLSA's history (17 years). The binding wage floor for most U.S. workers is therefore usually a STATE or LOCAL one: roughly 30 states plus D.C. set higher minimums (a number index them annually to CPI, so they move each 1 January), some states set floors BELOW $7.25 (which are pre-empted for FLSA-covered employees, so $7.25 governs), and a handful - notably Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee - have no state minimum wage statute at all, leaving $7.25 as the operative rate. Numerous cities and counties (Seattle, Denver, New York City, West Hollywood and others) set higher municipal rates. Separate federal sub-rates exist and are NOT reflected in this value: the tipped-employee cash wage is $2.13/hour under 29 U.S.C. 203(m)(2)(A) provided tips bring the employee to $7.25 (many states disallow or restrict this tip credit), a $4.25/hour youth opportunity wage applies to employees under 20 for their first 90 consecutive calendar days under 29 U.S.C. 206(g), and sub-minimum certificates for workers with disabilities exist under 29 U.S.C. 214(c). Executive Order 14026 minimum wages for federal contractors were revoked by Executive Order in March 2025. ACCESS QUIRK: dol.gov (Wage and Hour Division) returns HTTP 403 to non-browser clients via its Akamai edge, so the statutory text was taken from govinfo.gov, which is the authoritative GPO publication of the U.S. Code. The govinfo copy cited is the 2023 edition; no post-2023 public law amended 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1).
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1997-09-01 | 5.15 | Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-188), |
| 2007-07-24 | 5.85 | 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)(A), as amended by the Fair Minimum Wage |
| 2008-07-24 | 6.55 | 29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)(B), as amended by the Fair Minimum Wage |
Get it programmatically
curl https://usaref.dev/v1/us/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://usaref.dev/v1/us/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://usaref.dev/provenance/us/minimum-wageOther United States series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates