By 2008, workers in California and Massachusetts will earn a minimum wage of $8 an hour.

And while the recent increases have given the two states the highest rates in the nation, they are not alone in paying higher than the federal standard of $5.15 an hour. Since the Utah Legislature shot down a hike earlier this year, 10 other states have approved minimum-wage increases and voters in another six will vote on the issue in November.

At least two Utah lawmakers who ran failed measures in the 2006 session hope the trend will continue here.

"There is a great movement going on, a massive movement going on, throughout the country to increase the wages for those who are on the lower end of the scale," said Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley City, who plans to introduce a bill in the 2007 Legislature that would raise Utah's rate to $7 an hour.

Mayne is working with Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, who plans to run legislation taking it one step further, to $8 an hour.

"To me, every year that we keep putting it off, the further these people who are making $5.15 an hour are falling behind," Hansen said. "When they're making that small amount, then they've got to supplement their income in other ways, whether its through Medicaid or food stamps."

Nearly two dozen states have minimum wages higher than the federally mandated rate. Three states — Florida, Oregon and Washington — have rates that adjust annually based on inflation.

Both legislators point to various surveys indicating that the Utah public supports a boost in the state's minimum wage, including a November 2005 Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll showing that 77 percent of those surveyed either strongly or somewhat favored an increase. Twenty-one percent of the 400 Utahns questioned by Dan Jones & Associates oppose the measure.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

"I was very, very disappointed that we didn't respond to the vast majority of the Utah citizens" by approving an increase this year, Mayne said.

Hansen and Mayne say they hope to have the support of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who formed a Minimum Wage Working Group to study the idea of increasing Utah's minimum wage in May 2005. In January, rather than taking an official position on the issue, the group recommended a more in-depth look at the some 19,000 Utahns now working for $5.15 an hour.

Chairwoman Pamela Atkinson said she expects to have the results of that study, an informal survey of Utah businesses, within a month, which should give a clearer picture of who would be helped by an increase.

Atkinson believes other states' efforts will play at least a small role in the discussion in Utah.

"I think that will be somewhat meaningful to the legislators, but I also feel that they want to look at what is happening here in Utah," she said. "Who are the people who are earning minimum wage? A lot of people think it is teenagers, but we do know that there are heads of households earning minimum wage."

With results in hand, Atkinson said the group will make a recommendation to the governor and legislative leaders, who cited a need for specific evidence when they opposed earlier efforts to increase the state's rate.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com