By Randal Edgar
PROVIDENCE, RI -- The new year will bring a pay raise for minimum wage workers, among a host of new state laws that take effect.
The law raises the state's minimum wage -- for the first time in six years -- by 35 cents, from $7.40 to $7.75 per hour. The new figure puts Rhode Island roughly in the middle among the other New England states.
As of this week, Vermont's hourly wage is the highest, at $8.46, and it s rate automatically increases $8.60 on Jan. 1, according to the Vermont Department of Labor. Connecticut is next, at $8.25, followed by Massachusetts at $8, Maine at $7.50 and New Hampshire at $7.25, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. (The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.)