Minimum wage to jump by 70 cents Thursday

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The federal minimum wage jumps 70 cents to $6.55 an hour on Thursday, the second of three scheduled increases mandated by last year's Fair Minimum Wage Act.

The increase will affect workers in the 25 states that have minimum wages below the new national standard. A third increase, bringing the wage floor up to $7.25 an hour, is scheduled to go into effect in July 2009.

Democrats pushed through a new minimum wage as one of their first acts after taking control of Congress in January 2007. Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who was one of the sponsors of the measure in the House, said up to 13 million workers benefited from the first increase under the bill, which brought the federal minimum wage to $5.85 per hour in July 2007.