That is the year when the minimum wage was at a historic high.

At $1.60 per hour, the 1969 minimum wage is worth over $10 in present-day values and is significantly more than the current minimum wage, which nationally averages in the $7 range.

Had the rate kept pace with inflation, today’s minimum wage would be $10.39, according to the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Instead, the minimum wage is $8.25 in Illinois.

A large number of advocacy groups gathered to fight back against the unlivable minimum wage at a press conference in downtown Chicago yestersday. The Raise Illinois coalition met one day ahead of  today, July 1, which marks the first time in five years that minimum wage workers will not receive a rate increase, according to a release.

The coalition, citing NELP's data, also called for lawmakers to pass SB 1565, an ambitious bill previously tracked by Progress Illinois and that has stalled in the state Senate. The bill would raise the state's minimum wage by 50 cents, plus a cost of living adjustment until the wage's purchasing power was equivalent to 1969 levels. That would boost the state minimum wage to $10.03 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.