The Real Value Of The Minimum Wage Has Collapsed Since 1968

The minimum wage ain't what it used to be. "The decline in the real value of the minimum wage is indisputable...There has been a significant policy shift, however, in how to guarantee a minimally acceptable income to families with low-wage workers. In particular, the earned-income tax credit was instituted in 1976, and its generosity has since been expanded considerably...So suggesting that federal policy addressing low-wage work and low-income families has somehow failed because the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation ignores the fact that we have moved away from a focus on the minimum wage -- a policy with many flaws -- and toward the earned-income tax credit." David Neumark in The New York Times