In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.00 by the end of 2015 and indexing it to inflation. (It is currently $7.25.)

Twenty-two states currently match the federal minimum wage, 19 states and DC have minimum wages above the federal requirement, four have minimum wages below it, and five states do not require a minimum wage. Only 10 states (including Washington) link their minimum wages to the consumer price index. As we wrote last year, “the federal minimum wage prevails unless the state’s is higher.”

Consequently, such a jump in the federal minimum wage, which would increase most years due to inflation, would represent a significant change for most states. Not for Washington, though: Our minimum wage is currently $9.19. That’s the highest in the country, followed by Oregon ($8.95) and Vermont ($8.60).

Economists disagree on the impacts of minimum wage increases. Jordan Weissmann of The Atlantic contacted several labor economists about the president’s proposal — their responses are worth a read.

Also, Professor Mark Perry at Carpe Diem has data on who is actually earning the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, a local business recently announced that it is closing, and Washington’s high, indexed minimum wage is cited by the owners as one reason:

“We don’t pay anybody here minimum wage, but that is the baseline and every time the minimum wage goes up, we need to maintain a separation,” said Kavesh. “So our payroll goes up. We calculate for every three cents that minimum wage changes, we need to generate a 1 percent increase in sales to pay for that difference.”