Good news hardworking minimum wage earners, the National Employment Law Project has announced that the wage increase petition has been approved by the national government. However, only 13 states are covered by the new law which will start on January 1.

Here is a breakdown of the new minimum wage set for each state:

• Arizona - $7.90
• Colorado - $8.00
• Connecticut- $8.70
• Florida - $7.93
• Missouri - $7.50
• Montana - $7.90
• New Jersey - $8.25
• New York - $8.00
• Ohio - $7.95
• Oregon - $9.10
• Rhode Island - $8.00
• Vermont - $8.73
• Washington - $9.32

This salary hike was fueled by walkouts demonstrated by workers from fast food chains from at least 100 cities during the past year. Workers called for $15-an-hour pay and the right to form unions.

NELP policy analyst Jack Temple said it is a high time for the country to raise the salary of its blue collar workers.

"2014 is poised to be a turning point," Temple says. "States are seeing the unemployment rate is going down but job growth is disproportionately concentrated in low-wage industries. (They're) frustrated that Congress is dragging its feet."

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ryan Winkler of Minnesota. He said that it is not enough that people are landing jobs after the economic recession; people should also be paid based on what they really deserve.

President Barack Obama also expressed his support for the bill. He even said that he "would lift the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in three steps over two years and then index it to inflation."

However, some economic analysts, particularly the Employment Policies Institute, believe that such increase might lead to layoffs.

"If your costs are going up and you can't raise prices, you have to find a way to produce the same product at a lower cost," one of the company's research fellow said.