It's a raise that will impact the paychecks of about 64,000 Maryland workers.

The increase comes as a result of a federal decision last year that eventually will bring the national minimum wage up to $7.25 per hour by July 2009.

Currently, the federal minimum wage is $5.85 per hour, while Maryland's has been $6.15 for the past year. That means since July 2007, Maryland employees have had a 30-cent advantage over the U.S. rate.

Minimum wage covers employees through either the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or state law. Federal law mandates that in situations where the state and federal minimum wages are not the same, workers are paid the higher rate.

Dori Berman, spokesman for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said in the past, Maryland's minimum wage has followed suit with the federal wage and that she did not know why state legislators set the bar higher last July when Maryland's General Assembly instituted a bigger wage than the federal minimum.

Politics may have played a role in the decision. Democratic statesmen are touting the minimum-wage increase as a victory for their party.

"This minimum-wage increase couldn't come at a more critical time for workers or the economy," Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Prince George's, said in a statement. "This increase, followed by another raise next year, will help meet the immediate economic challenges facing working families as well as provide an additional boost to help strengthen the overall economy."

In Annapolis, it's difficult to find a wage earner for whom the raise will have an impact. At many of the service industry jobs in the city, employees are making $7 per hour or more.

Joseph Porter, a certified swing associate at a McDonald's on West Street, said his particular store has 60 to 70 employees. Because it stays open 24 hours a day and attracts a healthy dose of customer traffic, all his coworkers receive at least $8 per hour.

McQucio Moore, owner of Salad Creations in the Westfield Annapolis mall food court, said he pays his 12 employees between $7.50 and $9 per hour.

Even high-school student Sam Tarantino, 17, earns a dollar more than minimum wage working the concession stand at Bow-Tie Cinemas in the mall.

Where savings are concerned, many employers choose to maintain only a few full-time workers on their payrolls and keep the hours low for all others. At clothing retailer Forever 21, store manager Shannon Braxton-Brown said aside from her five managers and five staging associates, the rest of her employees work part-time hours.

For those who work more than 40 hours per week, Maryland's law requires time-and-a-half wages, though there are a few exceptions.

Some agricultural, nonprofit, restaurant, camp and drugstore workers might be exempt from overtime provisions and the minimum wage, according to the Annotated Code of Maryland.

And restaurant employees who get tips or associates who earn commissions also bypass minimum-wage regulations.

In the state's law, tipped employees may earn no less than $3.28 per hour, provided that the workers garner enough tips to bring their average hourly wage to at least $6.55.

Kristyna Partain, 18, has been a waitress and hostess at Tsunami restaurant and bar for a little less than a year. As a hostess, she makes $9 per hour, but when she's serving tables, she gets just more than $3. That doesn't bother her at all, she said.

"People tip a lot here, usually at least 20 percent," she said. "Most nights the servers walk out with $100 or more."

But as a student at Anne Arundel Community College who receives financial support from her parents for car insurance and other living expenses, she concedes she's less strapped for cash than others.

The new wage falls on the heels of another recent raise in the form of Maryland's adoption of a living wage in October 2007. As the nation's first state law legislating a minimum requirement pay for state-funded contracting, Baltimore contract workers must receive $11.30 per hour, and all other areas in the state make at least $8.50.

To view the entire Wage & Hour Fact Sheet and exceptions to the state minimum wage, visit www.dllr.state.md.us.