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While minimum wage has stagnated have real wages gone up? Minimum wage was meant as an entry level wage not a living wage. So yes, it was stagnant. In part because it is just an entry level wage and in part because of government policies. In recent years it has been used as a political football and is treated as a living wage vice its intended purpose as a entry level wage.

When I was 17 and 18, I baled hay in the summer. The last summer before I joined the military, I was paid $5 per hour (cash). I hired three other teenagers at $4 per hour. We worked 10-12 hour days, generally took us two days to finish the job. We did two hay crops per summer I would easily earn $200 (1974). If I was lucky another farmer would hire me for a day or two. I used $100 for new school clothes and the remaining $100 was my summer money. By 1984, the farmers were no longer hiring teenagers because farm work fell under minimum wage rules for the state and farmers had to pay insurance and unemployment insurance. Hire a teenager for cash and the farmer took a risk if somebody got hurt. We usually had at least one dumbass nail his leg with a bailing hook. That was a great way for me to earn what was a decent amount of money, buy school clothes and put gas in the car. Government labor laws put an end to that. Most farmers baling operations are completely automated now, all you need is one person to drive a tractor. With GPS, you won't even need a person to drive the tractor pretty soon. That is what happens when the federal government steps in and mandates things like minimum wage. You will lose a lot of entry level jobs.