Gov. Angus King’s recent change of heart in support of a higher minimum wage was welcome not only to the 5,000 residents who work for the current $5.15 an hour, but for thousands more who stand to benefit from the proposed increase. The governor deserves credit for changing a position it would have been just as easy for him to keep.

Under the proposal sponsored by Rep. Zachary Matthews of Winslow, the state minimum wage would rise in two increments to $6.25 by January 2003, more closely aligning the minimum here with that of Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Congress is expected in May to debate an increase in the federal wage to $6.65.

The governor had opposed a state increase in the minimum on several occasions, instead supporting a federal increase so that Maine did not lose jobs to states with a lower wage. The increases in four other New England states and the slowness in Congress to act on the question caused him to change his mind, he said. It is a reasonable reassessment, and if Congress does eventually approve a new wage floor, Maine’s level would fall below it, keeping the state in line with the region.

But there are even better reasons for lawmakers to support raising Maine’s minimum wage modestly. The Economic Policy Institute, an admittedly labor-leaning organization, estimated last year that some 40,000 Mainers would benefit from a hike in the minimum wage. That includes people at the current minimum, those earning between the old and new wage and those who would receive increases to keep their wages ahead of minimum wage. Raising the wage floor matters to a lot of people in Maine, and it is a good bet that the added wages received get recycled through the community and not spent elsewhere.

By now, it is well understood that the economic expansion of the 1990s did not benefit the lowest wage earners. Federal minimum-wage increases in the last few years may have helped a little (without, as the critics predicted, causing widespread layoffs) but the poorest fifth of workers by any measure have not made gains in income to the same degree as the top fifth.

The reasons for this are diverse, but it is fair to say that the loss of manufacturing jobs to globalization and the weakening of labor unions are contributors, as is the ability of money to make money. That is, people with money to invest have at least the opportunity to receive more income through dividends, interest and capital gains. Economists debate long into the night (truly) about the underlying causes of these conditions, but the equations are simpler for low-wage workers. The current minimum pays about $10,000 a year for full-time work; the higher wage pays about $12,000 a year.

The added $2,000 buys a lot of groceries, although the $6.25 rate still doesn’t return the wage to 1978 levels, when the real slide began, and isn’t close to the 1968 peak in the minimum wage. It is, however, a move in the right direction. And with the governor’s support, it has a strong chance of passing this year.