Multiplying the minimum wage by a work year of 50, 40-hour weeks gives the annual earnings that can be expected from a minimum wage job. The real annual income from a minimum wage job is the blue bars. The red line is the poverty level real annual income for a family of two adults and two children. The wages before taxes for one working parent are under $15,000.

The minimum wage has varied from a maximum of 99% of the poverty level in 1968 and has averaged 60% of the poverty level since 1989. The the lowest percentage the annual income from the minimum wage has been of the poverty level was 2006, just before Congress raised it for the first time in a decade. This is the longest period during which the minimum wage had not been adjusted.