AUGUSTA (AP) – The Maine House and Senate gave initial approval Friday to a bill to raise the state’s $7 hourly minimum wage by a half dollar, but the measure faced additional votes in both legislative chambers.

The Senate voted 18-17 in favor of the bill, which has been heavily amended from its original version that surfaced last year, and the House followed up with its assent.

The bill initially sought to ratchet the minimum up to $7.70 an hour in 2008 and $8.40 in 2009. Those proposed increases have since been scaled back to $7.50 over a two-year period.

The federal minimum wage rose to $5.85 last July and will increase to $6.55 on July 24, 2008 and $7.25 on July 24, 2009. The nation’s highest state minimum wage is in Washington state, at $8.07. Supporters say 26,000 Mainers earn the minimum wage, and most of them are adults, not teenagers.

During a debate on the proposal, Sen. Ethan Strimling of Portland said that for workers living on the edge, $500 a year the bill represents means a lot.

Strimling, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in Maine’s 1st District congressional race, said the bill seeks to close the gap between the wealthiest and everyone else.

“That gap is at its widest point in our history since 1929,” said Strimling.

Republicans countered that Mainers at the lower end of the income scale need more than periodic state minimum wage hikes.

Sen. Dana Dow, R-Waldoboro, said Mainers’ average earnings of around $32,000 per year are “pitiful,” but they won’t be buoyed without larger efforts that focus on the reason for the low incomes.

“I’m not going to support a policy that doesn’t include a grand vision,” said Dow.

The U.S. Census Bureau said Maine’s median household income in 2004 was $41,287, compared to the national figure of $44,334.

Sen. Douglas Smith, R-Dover-Foxcroft, called for “a major discussion” on taxes, regulatory rules and energy costs, tax and energy issues.

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