The federal minimum wage is at its lowest value since February 1956, analysis from the Economic Policy Institute shows.
经济政策研究所的分析显示，联邦最低工资处于1956年2月以来的最低水平。
The nonpartisan think tank’s recent analysis of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data found that the $7.25 federal minimum wage hasn’t been worth less since the Eisenhower administration, when the minimum wage was 75 cents, which would be worth $7.19 today.
这家无党派智库近日对消费者价格指数(CPI)数据分析发现，目前联邦最低工资为时薪7.25美元，处于自艾森豪威尔政府时期以来的最低水平，当时的联邦最低工资为每小时75美分，相当于现在的7.19美元。
Congress hasn’t increased the minimum wage since 2009, when it went from $6.55 to $7.25. The nearly 13 year gap since the last increase is the longest the government has gone without upping the minimum wage since it was first introduced in 1938.
2009年联邦最低工资从每小时6.55美元提高到7.25美元，此后，国会未再上调最低工资水平。这是自国会在1938年设立联邦最低工资以来，最长时间未上调最低工资。
“From basically the late 1950s until the early 1980s, Congress used to raise the minimum wage fairly frequently,” David Cooper, director of the economic analysis and research network at the EPI, tells CNBC Make It. “It was only starting in the 1980s with the Reagan administration where we went through this long spell where we just didn’t touch the federal minimum wage.”
经济政策研究所经济分析和研究网络主管大卫·库珀对CNBC Make It栏目表示：“基本上，从20世纪50年代末到80年代初，美国国会一直频繁地上调最低工资水平。”
Until now, the previous longest span between minimum wage increases was 10 years, between September 1997 and July 2007.
到目前为止，上一个最低工资上调的最长时间跨度是10年，即1997年9月至2007年7月。
“We’ve gotten into this pattern where we let inflation just eat away at the minimum wage’s value instead of doing something to make sure that it’s still a more adequate wage for folks,” Cooper says.
库珀说：“通货膨胀使最低工资价值缩水，而政府却没有采取措施来确保最低工资处于合理水平。”
A person earning the minimum wage for a full-time job in 2009 when it was raised to $7.25 was effectively earning $5,000 more than a person earning the same wage and working the same hours today.
2009年，全职工作的最低工资上调到每小时7.25美元，那时一个人的收入实际上比今天同样工资和工作时间的人多5000美元。
“Think what that means for someone who’s trying to afford rent, or a car payment, or student loans or whatever it may be,” Cooper says. “That’s an enormous difference in that person’s quality of life.”
库珀说：“想想这对那些支付房租、车贷、学生贷款或其他任何费用的人来说意味着什么。人们的生活质量与那时相比有很大区别。”
Many parts of the US have taken minimum wage increases into their own hands, with Nevada, Oregon, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. all increasing their minimum wages as of July 1, CNBC reports. Other states with higher minimum wages include Vermont, South Dakota, New York, California and New Mexico. But 20 states still have a minimum wage of $7.25.
据CNBC报道，截至7月1日，美国许多地区已自行提高最低工资，如内华达州、俄勒冈州、康涅狄格州和华盛顿特区。其他最低工资较高的州包括佛蒙特州、南达科他州、纽约州、加利福尼亚州和新墨西哥州。但还有20个州的最低工资仍为时薪7.25美元。
Despite some states increasing their minimum wage, Cooper says that real change will only be seen once it happens at the federal level, adding that a low wage floor affects more people than just those earning the minimum.
库珀称，尽管一些州提高了最低工资，但只有联邦政府采取行动才会发生真正的变化。他补充说，最低工资水平影响的不仅仅是最低收入者。
“It is also damaging for people who are a little further up the wage ladder and earning $3 or $4 more than the minimum,” he says. “If that wage floor had been raised more regularly over the course of the last 20 to 30 years, those folks would be earning a lot more today than they currently are.”
他表示：“那些工资更高、时薪比最低工资高3到4美元的人也会受到影响。如果在过去的20到30年里，最低工资经常上调，那么这些人今天的收入将比现在多得多。”
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