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PHOENIX — What can you buy for $6?

That's the question facing workers at the bottom of the pay scale who will be earning that much more each week beginning Jan. 1 — minus taxes and other deductions, of course.

The raise comes courtesy of the Arizona Industrial Commission, which set the new state minimum wage for this coming year at $6.90 an hour. That's 15 cents more per hour — $6 per 40-hour workweek — than the current figure.

Commissioners have that power — in fact, that requirement — because of a 2006 voter-approved initiative that created Arizona's first-ever minimum wage. Before that, employers in the state were covered under the federal law, which allowed workers to be paid as little as $5.15 an hour.

That 2006 law also requires the commission to provide annual cost of living increases, computed according to the Consumer Price Index published by the U.S. Department of Labor.

According to the commission, that 2 percent increase figures out to 13.5 cents. But workers will get 15 cents because the law requires adjustments to be rounded to the nearest nickel.

The new wage will keep Arizona workers ahead of federal law — at least for the time being.

Congress agreed earlier this year to hike the federal minimum wage to $5.85 an hour effective last July. That law hikes it again to $6.55 next July, and to $7.25 in July 2009.

Randall Maruca, director of the commission's labor department, said Arizona employers are required to pay the higher of the two figures. He said that means if Arizona's minimum wage is not that high on July 1, 2009, employers will have to pay at least $7.25.

But he said if the 2009 inflation adjustment puts the 2011 figure above $7.25, then Arizona firms will have to pay the state minimum wage on Jan. 1, 2010.