The federal minimum wage will increase to $6.55 per hour today, the second bump that is part of a law passed last year to increase the wage to $7.25 by next summer (see this story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). As the AJC correctly points out, the increase will have a significant impact in Georgia, but for more than half the states, it won't do much because the federal government is woefully behind the curve:

Yet in 30 states, Thursday's change is a yawner: They already have higher wage floors — the highest being California and Massachusetts at $8 an hour and Washington at $8.07 an hour.

In Georgia, the new floor matters: About 210,000 Georgians work for the minimum wage, according to a 2006 study by the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute. About 461,000 others, while making a little more than the minimum, would also likely get a boost because of the change, the GPBI said.

For a full-time worker, Thursday's $28-a-week raise would mean a year's pay of $13,624. That is below the official poverty line for a family of three — and about one-third of the Georgians affected by the change are parents, according to the GPBI.

Nationally, it is estimated that 2.1 million workers will receive a long-overdue pay increase today, but for a family of three, a minimum wage earner will still be well below the federal poverty line.

Related Articles:
OurFuture.org: The Next Minimum Wage Fight
Jonathan Tasani: The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace and a Scandal
EPI: Guide to the Minimum Wage

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has once again released an analysis of state government budget health, and the news continues to deteriorate. In their lastest analysis, they rank all 50 states according to changes in three main economic indicators - employment, poverty, and housing foreclosures. The report finds:

States across the country have projected budget shortfalls totaling at least $48 billion for 2009. To meet their balanced budget requirements, they are being forced to raise taxes and/or cut expenditures — both of which reduce overall demand and thereby weaken the impact of the recent federal stimulus package. Federal fiscal relief would limit the need for such actions.

CBPP argues pretty convincingly that because the states that are showing the most economic problems are the same ones that are having budget issues, fiscal relief for state budgets would go a long way to improving econonmic conditions. Good stuff. Maybe Congress should consider this, huh?

CBPP: ECONOMIC DATA CAN BE USED TO TARGET STATE FISCAL RELIEF EFFECTIVELY