House Approves Minimum Wage Increase

By a vote of 72-43 on Tuesday, the House gave its final approval to Rep. Alma Adams’ (D-Guilford) $1-per-hour increase in the minimum wage to $6.15, boosting confidence for advocates that a raise will soon come to more than 100,000 North Carolina workers.

Over half the states in the nation, including North Carolina, abide by the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, which has not been increased since 1997. Workers making $5.15 an hour earn about $10,700 a year. An extra dollar an hour would add up to an extra $2,000 a year. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have now raised the minimum wage above the federal level. Recently, Arkansas raised its minimum wage more than a dollar to $6.25 an hour.