...may have been the sound of the federal minimum wage whooshing upwards. As of last Thursday, it was $6.55/hour, up from $5.85, though not as high as it will go next year, to $7.25, the AP reports.

On the one hand, one would not expect this to have a major impact on typical entrepreneurs, many of whom live in one of the 23 states--plus the un-state District of Columbia--who represent the majority of the workforce and whose minimum wages are higher than this. (The state of Washington's, at $8.07, is the highest, although in San Francisco it is $9.36 an hour.) It will also, obviously, not affect the many small business owners who have no types of employees who might be paid minimum wage, or who pay all of their employees above minimum wage for other reasons.

And it's also worth noting, as the AP does, both that in adjusted dollars this new standard is still historically low, as well as that with the economy as it is--and especially with energy prices as they are--the wage rise is probably not going to make much of a difference as far as consumer spending is concerned.

That said, to some extent we all operate in the same job market, and so it seems logical to expect the increased wage floor to exert upward pressure to some degree on wages everywhere.

Does the federal minimum wage apply to your state? If not, what is your applicable minimum wage? Wikipedia, as usual, has the answer.