How this is worked out
Minimum wage: did it keep up with prices?
What the minimum would be if it had risen with prices.
Compare with this year. 2026 means January to August 2026, with the federal minimum still at US$7.25.
The weekly paycheck. After-tax pay is an estimate for one single worker with no children, using each year’s own tax rules: federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, no state tax and no earned income credit. This is the federal minimum only; many states and cities set a higher one, and tipped work has a lower federal rate. 2026 assumes the federal minimum is still US$7.25.
The hourly minimum in 2026 dollars. Prices are the consumer price index for all items. Housing and groceries rose faster or slower than that. A year with two federal rates uses the later one.
Your answer in words. The federal minimum wage was US$1.60 an hour in 1968. Adjusted for prices, that is US$15.25 an hour in 2026 dollars. The minimum in 2026 is US$7.25, 52% below that.
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US inflation 3.4% (August 2026, US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
How every calculator on the site is built, and what changed and when, is on How it works.