would be worth $150 now.

Taking your $5.75 an hour and multiplying it accordingly gives you $8.63. Really that's not that far off of the $7.25 you speak of, however minimum wage usually changes in steps. In AZ minimum wage was $5.15 per hour in 2006 and it's currently $11 per hour. Over that time inflation was a cumulative of 28.23% - so it should have raised from $5.15 to a whopping $6.60.

So wherever you are at it's grown slightly slower, but here in AZ it's grown at far greater a pace than inflation. It's likely your state is going to raise it soon (most seem to be), so I'm sure it will end up above the inflation amount. Not only that, but in many places just because the minimum wage is X, that doesn't mean you can hire people at that price.

There are those that say the rich get richer, that's a function of owning stock that has gone through the roof. In reality, over the last 75 years every class of people have gotten richer - it's just that those that own businesses that explode happen to be getting even more money - it's not that they somehow took it from the lower class.