While congressional Democrats have crowed about raising the minimum wage as a top priority should there be a shift in power in Congress, states continue to blaze past the federal government and enact increases in their respective state minimum wages.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that "six states will be given the opportunity to raise wages for as many as 1.5 million workers" through ballot initiative come November 7. The states, (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio) all have proposals in place that would increase the state minimum wage as well as tie future increases to a cost-of-living index.

Currently, 22 states have minimum wages above the federal rate of $5.15 per hour. EPI has calculated that if these six states all pass their initiatives on Election Day, over 70 percent of the workforce in America will live in a state with a higher required wage than the federal level. In addition, EPI released a report: Economic Effects of State Minimum Wage Increases, that examines the methods and findings of the major research that has been done on the effects of minimum wage raises.

For anyone interested in how the Bush tax cuts have impacted individual states, take a look at this report from Citizens for Tax Justice.