This article here states that a new minimum wage has been set and will increase to $7.25/hour by 2009. These articles here and here discuss how, contrary to some opinions, inflation is not affected by minimum wage increases. So how what is the relationship between the two?
"In the past decade, inflation has depleted the value of the minimum wage to the lowest level in more than 50 years," according to the first article. It seems that minimum wage increases are actually symptoms of inflation, not the other way around.
The other two articles discuss how inflation is affected by monetary policy enacted by the FED, and that the real pain of minimum wage increases are the workers that are the least employable. If an employee was barely worth the previous minimum wage, they do not 'magically' produce all of a sudden in a manner worthy to be compensated at the new wage level. Many of that group will loose their jobs if their employer cannot afford to pay the new wage.
Hence, the law that was passed to 'help the poor and less fortunate' may actually be hurting them, especially since the indicated inflation is already devaluing the few dollars they had before they were unemployed.