Raising the minimum wage has been a contentious issue at the national stage and federal inaction has led to states and cities taking matters into their own hands. Massachusetts has become the most recent state to raise the state's minimum wage as of Thursday.

Democratic Governor Deval Patrick signed the minimum wage increase into law Thursday morning at the state's legislator in Boston. The law will make Massachusetts the state with highest minimum wage by raising to $11 per hour by 2017.

"Raising the minimum wage brings a little relief to the working poor, many of whom do jobs we could not live without and who recycle money right back into the economy," Patrick said in a statement announcing the signing, according to Reuters.

Democrats have been trying to raise the issue at the federal level, pushing it as an issue for the midterm elections this November; however, their attempts to pass any laws have crashed before even taking off. Massachusetts and its neighboring states, nonetheless, passed laws that will allow for a living wage, since the current minimum wage cannot sustain workers.

According to the new law, the Massachusetts minimum wage will increase by $1 each year. It currently stands at $8 per hour and will increase to $9 on Jan. 1, 2015. An attempt by the governor to insert a clause that will increase the minimum wage proportionally to living costs past 2017 failed. However, the raise, which was established on 2008, will help more than half a million workers.

The increase will also benefit tipped workers, according to the Boston Globe. Their wage floor will be raised from $2.63 to $3.75 per hour by 2017. Another provision within the law will change the state's unemployment insurance system aimed at lowering costs for businesses. Many businesses see minimum wage hikes as detrimental to better business, and this may be a benefit for them.

However, some businesses also support better wages for their workers. The Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has announced that it will raise its average minimum wage in the U.S. to $10.76 per hour, a 17 percent increase, according to The New York Times.

The policy, instituted Thursday, will not increase wages across the board but rather increase them according to the costs of living where stores are located. The Times gave the examples of a in Pittsburgh will have a base wage of $8.69 an hour, while a store in West Chester, Ohio, will have one of $13.22 an hour.