“Boom Boom Pow” and the Minimum Wage: Still Stuck in 2009?
The Year Was 2009...
Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” was blasting through every speaker.
Twitter was barely three years old.
….And the federal minimum wage was updated to $7.25 per hour.
That was July 24, 2009.
It’s now 2025. And that wage? Still the same.
What Changed in 2009?
In 2007, Congress passed the Fair Minimum Wage Act, phasing in three annual increases. The final bump to $7.25 took effect in July 2009.
Since then? Nothing.
No adjustments for inflation.
No increases to reflect cost of living.
No updates to match the reality of 2025.
Why It Matters Today
$7.25/hour in 2009 had ~25% more buying power than it does today.
Many states have stepped in to raise their minimums, but 21 states still use the federal rate.
Industries relying on federal minimum wage face retention issues, turnover, and reputational risk.
Employer Takeaway: Turnover Costs More Than a Raise
The average employee leaves their job every ~3 years (often sooner in hospitality and food & beverage).
To estimate the cost of turnover:
Factor in recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity, retraining, and team disruption.
If your entry-level employee is only staying 12–18 months, and you’re losing $3–6k each time they leave, ask yourself:
👉 What if that was invested in retention instead?
When you annualize that loss across their short tenure, it often equates to a $1–3/hour raise — and that’s before you count the hidden costs:
Lower customer service consistency
Mistakes due to inexperience
Burnout for long-term staff picking up the slack
Here’s the truth:
💡 You won’t really know the cost until it’s already left your building.
The smartest employers look at personnel expenses relative to revenue and build a wage strategy with discipline — not emotion or default rates.
It’s a holistic conversation. And many teams just aren’t ready to have it.
But the ones that are? They win.