North Dakota workers who earn the minimum wage aren't being paid enough to support a family and deserve a raise, two Fargo-area Democrats said Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, and Rep. Jasper Schneider, D-Fargo, filed legislation this week to increase the state's minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009.

"Increasing the minimum wage is the least we can do to share the positive economic climate we have experienced in North Dakota with our lowest-paid workers," Schneider said in a press release.

North Dakota's current minimum wage mirrors the federal level of $5.15 an hour.

About 21,000 North Dakota workers currently earn that wage, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that advocates a minimum wage increase.

Those workers make about $10,700 a year - slightly above the federal poverty line of $9,570 for one person and well below the poverty line of $16,090 for a family of three.

"There are still workers making that wage, and we're sending them the message that this is a low-wage state," Mathern said.

The lawmakers' proposal calls for a 70-cent per hour increase over each of the next three years.

Mathern said raising the minimum wage gradually is a "pragmatic approach" that will likely garner more support in a conservative Legislature.

Critics of minimum wage increases say they pose an undue burden on small business owners. Many also argue that such increases actually harm low-income workers because businesses will find ways to hire fewer people.

"A minimum wage operates by removing the lowest rung on the economic ladder - it doesn't just take away current jobs, but also future opportunities," wrote economist Tim Kane of the Heritage Foundation, a think tank advocating free market principles.

This viewpoint won out in 2003, when the North Dakota Legislature turned down a similar minimum wage increase proposal.

Mathern said he hopes the Legislature will be more open to a minimum wage increase this year because the idea has gained traction in surrounding states and at the national level, where President Bush recently called for such an increase.

"I think the stars are lining up to make this possible," he said.

This fall, voters in six states approved ballot measures increasing their minimum wage rates. Overall, 23 states have minimum wages higher than the federal level.

Among neighboring states, Minnesota has a minimum wage of $6.15 for large employers, and Montana will require a $6.15 minimum wage beginning next year.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 250-8264 or jonathan. rivoli@;bismarcktribune.com.)