New Data on the Value of the Minimum Wage

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So, a single person who works 52 weeks a year, 40 hours per week at minimum wage would have been above the US poverty level for the entire time covered in this graph.

For most of the time from 1960 to 1982, one person working at minimum wage could keep a family of three out of poverty. Vietnam cut into the value of such a wage from the late 60s to the mid 70s. However, since the Reagan revolution, a single worker at the minimum wage did not earn enough to keep a family of three out of poverty.

A family of four has always needed two workers, if working at minimum wage.