In January, Oregon’s minimum wage went up 15 cents to $9.25 an hour. This brings another $26 a month and $234 a year to those working 30 hours a week in minimum wage jobs.

The wage raise is thanks to a ballot measure passed by Oregon voters in 2002, tying the state minimum wage to inflation.

The current federal wage is $7.25 per hour, two dollars below Oregon’s minimum. Oregon’s is one of 20 states to raise minimum wage in the new year and is second highest just below the state of Washington by 22 cents.  In May 2014, Seattle also announced its plan to raise the minimum wage within the city to $15 by 2020.

“Though the 15 cent increase will help, the minimum wage remains too low for working families to make ends meet,” Taylor Mac Innis, a policy analyst with the Oregon Center for Public Policy, said. “A parent who works full time should be able to cover his or her family’s basic needs.”

According to the OCPP, seven out of 10 families in poverty have at least one parent who works. One in five families have a parent that works full time.

Mac Innis hopes in the next session the legislature will consider a raise in the minimum wage to match the cost of living in the state.

“In the upcoming session, Oregon lawmakers will have a chance to make the economy work better for everyone, not just for those at the top,” said Mac Innis. “Oregonians will be looking to their legislators to raise the minimum wage so work enables families to make ends meet.”

“Right now, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is leaving 25 million American workers behind, all while lining the pockets of the people at the very top,” Congressman Peter DeFazio said in a previous interview with the Emerald. “It’s time for the rest of the country to adopt what’s already happening in Oregon: tying the minimum wage to inflation. Giving workers a long-overdue raise would lift millions of Americans out of poverty. That’s not only good for the workers, but also for the U.S. economy and its long-term growth.”

DeFazio, along with Oregon representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer, sponsored the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 in the 2013-14 congress session. Which planned to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 within two years. The bill was first introduced Mar. 6, 2013. It has not progressed any further since Feb. 2, 2014, when a motion was filed to discharge the Education and Workforce Committee from considering the bill any further.