The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That is the longest stretch without an increase since the federal wage floor was established. The comparisons below set that frozen number against the costs a household actually faces, using published estimates from the agencies and research organizations that produce them. Every figure names its source, and every comparison is arithmetic performed on those figures.
The baseline
$7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. Source: U.S. Department of Labor.
$15,080 a year. That is $7.25 multiplied by 2,080 hours, the standard full time year of 40 hours across 52 weeks, before any tax is withheld. This figure is arithmetic on the Department of Labor rate, not a separate published statistic.
About $1,257 a month. The same annual figure divided by twelve. Every comparison below uses these two derived numbers.
Against household income
Median household income: about $80,000 in 2023. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
A full time federal minimum wage income of $15,080 is about 19 percent of that median. One full time worker at the federal floor earns roughly a fifth of what the middle household in the country takes in.
Against housing
Median U.S. home sale price: roughly $400,000 to $420,000 in 2024. Source: National Association of Realtors and U.S. Census Bureau data.
Homes cost about five times median household income today, against roughly three times in the 1980s. Same sources.
Set the median home price against full time federal minimum wage earnings and the ratio is about 27 to 1. A 20 percent down payment of roughly $80,000 to $84,000 is more than five years of total gross earnings at the federal floor, before rent, food, or tax.
Against health care
Employer sponsored family coverage: about $25,000 in total annual premium, with the worker’s share above $6,000. Source: KFF, 2024.
The worker’s share alone is about 40 percent of annual full time federal minimum wage earnings, before any deductible is met.
Medical debt: at least $220 billion owed. Source: KFF analysis of Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation data, published 2022 and reflecting 2021.
Roughly 100 million adults carry some form of health care debt. Source: KFF and NPR investigation, 2022. Both figures are 2021 and 2022 vintage and should be read as such.
Against child care
Center based child care: commonly $10,000 to $17,000 or more per year, per child. Source: Child Care Aware.
At the low end that is about 66 percent of full time federal minimum wage earnings. At the high end it exceeds them. One child in center based care can cost more than a full time job at the federal floor pays before tax.
Cost of raising a child to age 18: commonly cited near $300,000 or more. Source: Brookings analysis derived from U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That is close to twenty years of full time federal minimum wage earnings for one child.
Against transportation
Average new car payment: about $730 to $740 a month. Average used car payment: about $520. Source: Edmunds and Experian data, 2024.
The average new car payment is about 58 percent of monthly gross earnings at the federal minimum wage. The used car payment is about 41 percent. Neither includes insurance, fuel, or maintenance.
Against education debt
Average student loan debt: about $38,000 per borrower. Source: Education Data Initiative. That is roughly two and a half years of full time federal minimum wage earnings.
Total outstanding student loan debt: about $1.7 to $1.77 trillion. Source: Federal Reserve G.19 consumer credit release.
Against pay at the top
CEO to worker pay ratio at large firms: roughly 290 to 1 through 340 to 1. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
Stated in hours, a worker at the federal floor would need to work somewhere between 290 and 340 years to earn what a chief executive at a large firm is compensated in one.
What the numbers show together
Read individually, each comparison looks like a statement about one cost category. Read together, they describe a single pattern: the wage floor held a fixed nominal value from 2009 onward while housing, health care, child care, transportation, and education all moved.
Two clarifications keep this accurate. First, most workers do not earn the federal minimum. Many states set higher floors, and the federal rate functions as a baseline rather than a typical wage. Second, these are national figures, and costs vary enormously by county, which is why local calculations do the real work in any specific case.
What the federal floor measures well is the direction and the size of the drift. A number that has not moved since 2009 is a fixed reference point, and setting moving costs against a fixed reference is the cleanest way to see how far they have traveled.
That is the framing advocacy groups working on this have converged on. Fight For A Living Wage, a nonpartisan grassroots 501(c)(3), argues that the crisis is affordability rather than the minimum wage alone, on the grounds that housing, health care, child care, food, transport, education, and retirement all outran wages at once. The table above is the arithmetic version of that claim.
Sources referenced
U.S. Department of Labor (federal minimum wage), U.S. Census Bureau (household income, home price data), National Association of Realtors (home sale prices), KFF (health premiums, medical debt), Child Care Aware (child care costs), Brookings and U.S. Department of Agriculture (cost of raising a child), Edmunds and Experian (vehicle payments), Education Data Initiative (student debt per borrower), Federal Reserve G.19 (total student debt), Economic Policy Institute (CEO to worker pay ratio).