Minimum wage rises to $6.55 an hour Thursday

The nation's lowest-paid workers are scheduled to get a raise Thursday.

The minimum wage, which has been $6.15 in North Carolina since the beginning of 2007, will climb to $6.55.

Even with that 6.5 percent increase, however, a minimum-wage worker still has to work more than an hour to afford two medium-sized lattes at Starbucks.

The youngest workers -- including teenagers - and the oldest, retirees who are supplementing their income, are most likely to make the minimum wage, said N.C. State University economist Michael Walden.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates, based on an employer survey, that 46,000 workers in North Carolina were paid the federal minimum wage, or less, last year. (As of today, employers can pay workers who earn tips, such as waiters and waitresses, $2.13 an hour -- as long as the worker can make up the difference in gratuities.)

But raising the minimum wage will have a much broader impact because it will indirectly push up the pay of other workers who make a little more than the minimum, said John Quinterno, research associate at the N.C. Budget and Tax Center, an advocacy group for working families.