Increased minimum wage now law; 139,000 affected

About 139,000 North Carolinians will get an automatic raise Jan. 1.

Flanked by legislators, Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday signed into law a $1 increase in the state minimum wage.

The law boosts the minimum wage to $6.15 per hour, effective next year.

Easley criticized lawmakers in Washington for not raising the federal minimum wage, now $5.15, in the past nine years.

He said he hopes North Carolina's example will spur action.

"This is long overdue," Easley said. "It's absurd that it's not been taken up on the federal level."

Easley, a Democrat, said it was important for North Carolina to increase its minimum wage to show that it is not a "sleepy Southern state" anymore.

The governor said he doesn't care to recruit jobs that pay the minimum. With low wages come low-skill jobs, Easley said.

"North Carolina is not interested in building ... a low-wage, low-skill economy," he said.

The law ties the state's minimum wage to the federal minimum.

If the federal minimum is raised, then North Carolinians will receive whichever wage is higher.

State Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, said the increase is the first step in a larger plan to increase wages.

Easley and others said that the state might examine indexing the minimum to inflation but that more attention would be put on trying to force federal action.

The increase will affect about 139,000 workers in the state, according to Easley's office.