Thousands of people around the country found themselves making 70 cents more per hour today than they did yesterday, thanks to the federal government’s raise in the minimum wage going into effect—from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour.

Will the increase do anything to help the ailing economy? And a question for Church Central readers—what will the increase mean for churches?

Benevolence funds are often disseminated not to the unemployed, but to the underemployed—people who make less than a living wage. Such workers sometimes find themselves in a gap between what their meager paychecks cover and what they need.

Making minimum wage would net about $50/day for an 8-hour shift under the old wage. With the increase of more than $5.50/day, that comes to about $28 extra per week. That might help people struggling in low-paying jobs to make ends meet. Economists are betting on people spending the extra cash in order to stimulate the economy. What would be better for workers (again from a benevolence perspective) would be to save the extra to build up a reserve for those times when the ends don’t meet.

Not good enough?

According to Let Justice Roll, Faith and Community Voices Against Poverty, the raise is "good, but not good enough." The organization joins others calling for a hike to $10 an hour in 2010. That would match the wage the Christian-based Hobby Lobby pays its starting clerks.

According to this group, the minimum wage is a "moral issue." I suppose you could make a case for that. However, whether it is the government’s moral issue may be another question. Churches that have gotten behind the push to encourage the government wage hike may also consider encouraging business owners, corporate execs and other employers to pay more willingly. It’s not like there is a maximum wage law.

The minimum wage is a little bit like the tithe. This 10 percent giving instituted in the Old Testament was never intended to be the only way God’s people gave. Instead, it was a starting point. Now, today’s believers have much more generous examples of giving from the first Christians who "shared everything in common," according to the book of Acts.

Even with the minimum wage increase, more Christians giving more may still be the only way to keep everyone afloat. And that is a moral issue.