Federal minimum wage rises to $26.59 by 2030, then auto-adjusts every 7 years
H.R. 122 — Original LAW Act · Filed by Al Green (D-TX) · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill raises the federal minimum wage to $10.59/hour in 2026, then increases it annually to $26.59/hour by 2030. Starting in 2031, the minimum wage automatically adjusts every 7 years to equal 40% above the federal poverty threshold for a renting family of 4 with 2 children, ensuring full-time minimum-wage workers can afford basic housing without spending more than 30% of income on rent.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a phased increase in the federal minimum wage followed by automatic adjustment tied to a poverty-based formula. This is straightforward wage-floor legislation with a transparent indexing mechanism, not a hidden carve-out or deregulation.
What the text implies
- Automatic 7-year indexing removes minimum wage from annual political negotiation, potentially reducing legislative gridlock but also insulating the wage floor from real-time economic conditions or labor-market feedback.
- The formula ties wage to supplemental poverty threshold for a specific family type (renting family of 4 with 2 children), which may not reflect regional cost-of-living variation or single-worker households, potentially creating geographic inequities.
- Employers in low-margin sectors (retail, food service, hospitality) face significant labor-cost increases; some may accelerate automation, reduce hours, or pass costs to consumers—effects not addressed in the bill.
- The 'floor cannot go down' provision in subsection (b)(3) means the minimum wage is ratcheted upward only, never downward, even if the poverty threshold declines—creating a one-way adjustment mechanism.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Low-wage workers and their families gain direct income increases and improved housing affordability; the bill explicitly targets workers earning below poverty thresholds and unable to afford rent at 30% of income. The automatic indexing mechanism protects future workers from wage erosion due to inflation without requiring repeated congressional action.
Who stands to gain
- low-wage workers and their families
- workers in retail, food service, hospitality, and care sectors
Named in the bill
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Secretary of Labor, Federal supplemental poverty threshold, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator
Where it stands
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,072 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-21.
“Federal minimum wage rises to $26.59 by 2030, then auto-adjusts every 7 years” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr122 Report an error
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