Each day this week, we’re bringing you a "top 5 chart" that reflects the state of our economy.  Earlier this week, we focused on Social Security―the most successful anti-poverty program ever created in the history of the U.S; our next chart highlighted the massive number of people who continue to struggle to make ends meet during this terrible pandemic. 
 
Today we are focusing on the dire need to increase the federal minimum wage.
 
Take a look at this chart: Back in 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom demanded a federal minimum wage that would be the equivalent, in inflation-adjusted terms, of almost $15 an hour today. But because of the repeated failure of federal policymakers to act, the federal minimum wage has failed to even keep up with inflation and remains stuck at $7.25 per hour—less than half of that 57 year-old goal.