I am so sick of people bringing that bogus website up.
Let me enlighten you to some facts.
Here's the Department of Labor's actual chart on minimum wage historical rates.
Let's look at when the minimum wage was $.25 in 1938. If you plug that into the US Bureau of Labor Statistics'
inflation calculator you'll see that the 1938 minimum wage of $.25 equates to about 4.10 today.
In 1950, when the minimum wage was at the height of its purchasing power, it was $.75, or $7.20 in today's dollars.
The minimum wage has, historically, fluctuated around a $6-$8 (in 2012 dollars) rate. The point that the "raise the minimum wage" people like to start their charts at is the late 60s and 70s when, for a brief time, the purchasing power of the minimum wage was artificially inflated to ridiculous purchasing power of $10-$11 in today's dollars.
You'll find that it didn't last long either as inflation quickly normalized it back to its classical rate.
I'm just
so tired of explaining this uncomfortable fact to minimum wage advocates every time it comes up.