Minimum Wage

Is it possible to make ends meet with a minimum wage?

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  • Idaho’s minimum wage, $7.25, was set in 2009 to match the federal minimum wage.
  • Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage peaked in 1968 at $8.54 (in 2014 dollars). Since it was last raised in 2009, the federal minimum has lost about 8.1% of its purchasing power to inflation1.
  • In 2014, 12,000 Idaho workers were paid a minimum wage, and 9,000 were paid less2.
  • Individuals and families require a lot more than $7.25 to make ends meet.  For example, in Ada County, a single parent with two children would need to earn $24.38 per hour – $50,711 per year before taxes – to pay for typical expenses such as food, housing, child care, transportation and medical care.3

Living wages

Sources

  1. Pew Research Center (2015)
  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014)
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2016)
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