AUGUSTA, (AP) – An estimated 25,000 Mainers will get a raise today when the state’s minimum wage goes up by a dime to $6.35 an hour.

Supporters of the increase say it will make a big difference to workers, even if it adds up to just $4 a week or barely $200 a year. Others say it does little for workers while adding another burden to businesses.

State Sen. Neria Douglass, D-Auburn, said even with the wage increase, many minimum wage earners must work more than one job to make ends meet. She knows some businesses don’t like the wage hike, but said stronger buying power for workers means more business for all.

“The spinoff effects of even a moderate increase result in more economic activity all around the state,” she said.

Bill Becker, executive director of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center, said businesses face rising insurance costs, health care bills and workers compensation costs.

“To solve it, we’re going to offer a dime increase to the minimum wage worker?” he said. “That is not going to solve Maine’s economic morass.”

Those same arguments were waged by Republicans in the Senate, where the increase passed in the spring along party lines by a vote of 18-17. The bill calls for the minimum wage to increase again on Oct. 1, 2005, to $6.50.

Maine is one of 12 states that has a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum, which is $5.15 an hour.

It’s estimated 25,000 Mainers will benefit from this increase to the minimum wage, said Adam Fisher, Department of Labor spokesman.

Greg Dugal, executive director of the Maine Innkeepers Association, said his group opposed the wage increase because it also gives a raise to wait staff, who make most of their money through tips.

Although waiters and waitresses don’t make minimum wage – they are paid half of minimum wage – they too get a raise when the minimum wage goes up.

That means there’s less money for dishwashers and cooks, who usually make more than minimum wage but don’t make tips while waiters make an average of $100 a night, he said.

“The implications are that benefits and insurance still need to be paid to these folks,” he said. “And they are making more money than anyone.”

But Chris Hastedt, public policy specialist for Maine Equal Justice, says the wage hike will make a difference to most who receive it.

“These are folks who are working at the bottom of the economy and a dime does make a difference,” she said.

AP-ES-09-30-04 0216EDT