Minimum Wage
| Year | Actual Wage | Value Today | Wage Today | % Difference |
| 1956 | $1.00 | $7.01 | $5.15 | -26.53% |
| 1968 | $1.60 | $8.77 | $5.15 | -41.28% |
| 1978 | $2.65 | $7.75 | $5.15 | -33.55% |
| 1981 | $3.35 | $7.03 | $5.15 | -26.74% |
| 1990 | $3.80 | $5.54 | $5.15 | -7.04% |
Congressional Salary
| Year | Actual Salary | Value Today | Salary Today | % Difference |
| 1956 | $22,500 | $157,750 | $158,100 | +0.22% |
| 1968 | $30,000 | $164,400 | $158,100 | -3.83% |
| 1978 | $57,500 | $168,180 | $158,100 | -5.99% |
| 1981 | $60,662 | $127,263 | $158,100 | +24.23% |
| 1990 | $96,600 | $140,946 | $158,100 | +12.17% |
Today's Congressional Salary Adjusted for Minimum Wage Growth Rate From the Year Stated
| Year | 2005 Adjusted Salary |
| 1956 | $115,875 |
| 1968 | $96,563 |
| 1978 | $111,745 |
| 1981 | $93,257 |
| 1990 | $130,918 |
For decades, the minimum wage was the rough equivalent of $7-$8 in today's money. By 1990, you see a serious dip in the worth of the wage. At the same time, however, you see that congressional salaries do a great job of keeping on track of cost-of-living adjustments.
I'm sending these tables to my representatives and urging them to propose a bill that does one of three things:
(1) Require that all congressional pay raises be tied to increases in minimum wages so that they both follow the exact same growth rate, or
(2) Reduce the current congressional salary of $158,100 down to a rate corresponding to the current, slower, growth rate of minimum wage (Table 3 above).
(3) Increase minimum wage to it's historic value of $7-$8. This will never pass in a pro-corporate-at-all-costs environment like we have now, of course.
The second proposal would likely draw a fair amount of attention to the issue since it isn't too often that a Congressman or Senator suggests a pay cut as drastic as this. It would have to be popular with voters as well.
Sources
Minimum wage history:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/chart.htm
Congressional Salaries:
http://www.conginst.org/congressional_myths/salaries.html
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/97-1011.pdf
Cost-of-Living/Inflation Calculator:
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/
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