New Mexico is set to become the most recent state to give a raise to minimum wage workers. Jesse Russell files this report:

By Jesse Russell

The state Senate passed the minimum wage bill on March 17 – a bill that will bump the state minimum from the federal level of $5.15 per hour to $7.50 per hour over two years. Once Governor Bill Richardson signs the bill there will be 30 states in the country with a wage higher then the federal minimum. Five states have no state minimum wage and Kansas has the lowest at $2.65 per hour. New Mexico is the second state to raise the minimum wage this year with Iowa passing a bill that raises the hourly rate of minimum wage workers to $7.25 per hour by January. A bill that would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour has been stymied by Senate Republicans who are against giving U.S. workers a raise for the first time in nearly 10 years.