Following recent minimum wage increases in more than half of all states, including Pennsylvania, Congress met last week to raise the standard to $7.25 nationally.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 by a vote of 315 to 116, according to an Associated Press article. The law aims to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over a two-year period. The move came less than two weeks after Pennsylvania raised the state's minimum wage from $5.15 for the first time since 1997, when the federal government raised it from $4.75, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Downtown Improvement District Director Teresa Sparacino said she supports the increase in Pennsylvania.

"It's been some time since they raised the minimum wage," she said. "It was time, especially with the cost of living. It's been almost a decade and the cost of living has increased substantially since 1997."

Sparacino said the increase does not affect all businesses equally.

"Some businesses may have already been paying close to that," she said. "It will probably affect smaller businesses more so than the larger."

The state General Assembly passed legislation in June to increase the legal minimum wage to $6.25 per hour effective Jan. 1. The law also includes a second increase that will raise the minimum to $7.15 on July 1.

Legislators voted to allow small businesses to adjust more slowly. Businesses with 10 employees or less must pay each worker at least $5.65 as of Jan. 1, but will also have to meet the $7.15 level by July. Workers ages 20 or younger may receive a "training wage" of at least $5.15 for the first 60 days of employment, but then must be paid according to the new wage. Centre County Democrats Chairwoman Dianne Gregg said she approves of the new wage because the economy always seems to do better when workers' salaries increase.

"It needed to be done," she said. "Inflation continues to go up, yet there was no off-set in the rates of wages for lower-income individuals."

She said she does not buy into critics' argument that increasing the minimum wage hurts the economy because of a decline in employment.

"The added income is put back into the economy," she said.

Centre County Republicans Chairman G.T. Thompson said he opposes the state's change because it presents unfair competition between state economies.

"If you are going to do an adjustment, the appropriate place is on the federal level," he said. "On a state level, it just creates a bad situation economically because the wage is not standardized across all states."

Thompson said it would have been best for Pennsylvania's minimum wage to remain at the federal level.

"The increase has quite an impact on the businesses in terms of ability to meet payroll, so it might make more sense to make incremental adjustments," he said.

State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, said he would prefer the federal increase, but he voted to support the state's increase last summer because the need was too urgent to wait for Congress to act.

"With gas at $3 a gallon, how could someone go to work for $5.15 an hour and still make anything?" he said. "My goal is to keep people gainfully employed."