Minimum Wage increases

Maine's minimum wage to increase to $7 an hour by October 2007. Governor Baldacci stated the two-step increase will make Maine's minimum wage into a ''living wage" for those who struggle with one or more jobs to make ends meet. October 2006 minimum wage will increase from the current $6.50 an hour to $6.75 in , and then by another quarter to $7 a year later. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, the same as it is in neighboring New Hampshire. All of the rest of New England's states have higher minimums than the federal standard. Connecticut's is $7.40, while Vermont's is $7.25, Rhode Island's $7.10, and Massachusetts $6.75, according to the US Labor Department. Maine's minimum-wage earners received their most recent increase last fall under a bill signed into law two years ago