A year’s salary lost.

$13,329. That’s the amount America’s lowest-paid workers have lost to inflation in the last decade. Minimum-wage workers take home an annual pay of $15,080. That means that those workers have lost nearly an entire year’s salary since Congress last raised the minimum wage ten years ago.

• In 2019, a “full-time, year-round worker earning $7.25 per hour will take an effective pay cut of $2,578.”

• Minimum-wage workers “would need more than 44 extra working days each year just to make the same in real terms as they did back in 2009.”

• For reference, the 2019 federal poverty threshold for a single person in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC is $12,490.

• The Raise the Wage Act enjoys strong bipartisan support from voters and would help combat this disturbing loss of wages.

On the 2016 campaign trail, President Trump flip-flopped endlessly on the minimum wage. At some points opposing it entirely (“Our wages are too high”), at others supporting raising the minimum wage to $15, he refused to commit to a long-overdue pay increase that legislation like the Raise the Wage Act would provide.

For more information on the minimum wage and solutions Congress can enact ASAP, click here.

THINKING CAP: THE CONFLICTED STATES OF OUR UNION

Want some quick analysis of Trump’s 82-minute SOTU? Thinking CAP has you covered. Listen to this week’s episode for expert takes from:

• Kelly Magsamen, vice president of National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, who breaks down what Trump’s SOTU tells us about his foreign policy vision.

• Juanita Tolliver, CAP Action’s director of campaigns, who breaks down the lies that littered Trump’s address.

Listen to the new episode here.