AUGUSTA – Maine’s minimum wage earners are getting a raise.

Starting Wednesday, the state’s minimum wage will be $7.25 an hour – a quarter more than the current rate.

The raise is the first in a two-step increase that will lift Maine’s minimum wage to $7.50 an hour in October 2009.

The Maine Labor Department says about 26,000 workers in the state have earnings at or below the minimum wage.

The federal Department of Labor says 74 percent of workers earning the minimum wage or less are older than the age of 19, and 24 percent work full time or more.