Marking the 13-year anniversary of the last federal minimum wage increase in the U.S.—a meager boost from $5.15 to $7.25 in 2009—progressive campaigners on Sunday urged congressional Democrats to make another push to raise the national pay floor as inflation continues to diminish workers' purchasing power.

"Today is a sad anniversary in the United States," said Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group that advocates progressive economic policy. "For 13 years now, Congress has failed to act to raise the $7.25 hourly federal minimum wage. Lawmakers have turned their backs on America's tens of millions of low-wage workers and revealed themselves to be beholden to the short-sighted interests of some of their ultra-rich donors."

According to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the real value of the federal minimum wage is currently at its lowest point in nearly seven decades amid record-high inflation, which spurred a decrease in real average hourly earnings between June 2021 and June 2022 as corporate profits soared.

Washington Nationals wunderkind Juan Soto recently turned down a contract extension offer that would have made him the highest-paid player in baseball history, according to Ken Rosenthal. Soto rejected a monster 15-year extension worth $440 million, and the Nationals reportedly now plan to entertain trade offers for last year's NL MVP runner-up.

Here are the detail's on Soto's rejected extension, via The Athletic:

Soto, 23, rejected a 15-year, $440 million offer, sources said. The proposal, the Nationals' third in recent months, did not include any deferred money, a departure from the team's usual practice. The two biggest guarantees in club history, $245 million for right-hander Stephen Strasburg and $210 million for righty Max Scherzer, included significant deferrals, lowering the present-day values of the deals.

The Nationals' offer exceeded in total dollars the 12-year, $426.5 million contract Mike Trout signed with the Angels in March 2019. Soto would have received an average salary of $29.33 million, the 20th-highest in baseball history, with the deal extending from his Ages 24 to 38 seasons, effectively making him a National for the rest of his career.