Vermont's lowest paid workers are now getting 42 cents more per hour.

Starting Thursday, New Year's Day, the minimum wage rose to $9.15 from $8.73.

Gov. Peter Shumlin, who signed the minimum wage increase into law last spring, says the economic recovery has been harder for the state's lowest wage earners so the extra money will help.

A full-time minimum wage earner will see their yearly income rise by about $900 to just over $19,000.

In the next three years Vermont's minimum wage is scheduled to increase in stages to $10.50 an hour.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.