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.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
low-wage workers and their families; workers in retail, food service, hospitality, and care sectors