What is the U.S. federal minimum wage per hour?

How to get close to this number

Anchor on the annual figure. A full-time year is around two thousand hours, and a federal minimum wage worker earning roughly fifteen thousand a year implies an hourly rate in the single digits. Working back from an annual income is easier than recalling an hourly rate.

The date is the striking part: unchanged since July 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since the minimum was introduced in 1938. A nominal figure held fixed for fifteen years loses purchasing power continuously, so freezing a wage is a real cut that requires no vote.

The coverage caveat is what makes the figure less consequential than it sounds: most states set a higher floor, and the majority of low-wage workers are covered by a state or city rate instead. The federal number now functions as a default that applies where nothing else does, and its purchasing power peaked in 1968.