$7.25 Federal Minimum: Still Unchanged Since 2009. Axios Celebrates $15 States.
Workers in 19 states will see a minimum wage bump on January 1st, a development Axios hails as 'stunning' progress as more states hit $15/hour. Yet, this celebration conveniently ignores the elephant in the room: the federal minimum wage remains at a jaw-dropping $7.25 an hour, a figure unchanged since 2009. While Axios cites the Economic Policy Institute on local wage hikes, it fails to connect
the dots to who benefits from keeping the federal floor cemented in the Obama administration's past, or how many congressional votes oppose federal uplifts. This isn't about 'regional differences'; it's about legislative stalemates. One might wonder why, after 15 years of inflation, Congress hasn't acted. Perhaps it's because the same corporate interests funding campaigns that block federal
increases also benefit from the race to the bottom in states without local protections. The 'stunning stat' isn't that states are raising wages, but that the federal government allows its citizens to be paid poverty wages for over a decade.