More About the Recent Minimum Wage Increase

Paula Brantner of Workplace Fairness and the excellent Today's Workplace Blog has some interesting new details concerning the recent rise of the federal minimum wage to $7.25 on July 24, 2009:

About 10 million workers - 10.7% of all workers -- will receive a $2000 annual increase as a result of this increase. Many believe that the minimum wage increase is an important step towards helping families through these difficult economic times. "Working families who make the minimum wage have been barely scraping by," said Paula Brantner, executive director of Workplace Fairness. "While workers who make the minimum wage will still struggle financially -- even with this increase -- this will put more money in the pockets of working people and help stimulate our still-sluggish economy."

Employers in the following 30 states will now have to pay their workers $7.25 an hour as a result of the change in the law:

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. 

Brantner points out that twenty states already have state minimum wages higher than, or the same as, the federal level. More insight on the federal minimum wage increase can be found at Federal Minimum Wage Increase, by Hannah Goitein, at Today's Workplace, the Workplace Fairness blog.

PS