Minimum Wage Increase for Federal Contract Employees

March 4, 2014

President Obama announced that in the next few weeks, he will sign an executive order raising the minimum wage for workers covered by new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour. This increase will be very limited in scope; it will only apply to employees who would otherwise make less than $10.10 an hour and who are employed under new, rather than existing, federal contracts. The earliest this order is likely to take effect is in 2015. As of now, it appears that the general federal minimum wage of $7.25, which must be amended by Congress (as opposed to by a presidential executive order), is unlikely to change in the near future.