 In 2012, 4.7 percent of hourly wage workers got paid minimum wage. That's a number President Obama would like to see decrease. And the President's stated the union addressed last month. He stated he will raise federally funded employee's wages to $10.10 an hour. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It does not involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise. On the same night, Governor DeVall Patrick gave his State of the Commonwealth address. He also urged a hike in the state minimum wage. To those who are reluctant to raise the minimum wage, I ask only that before you resolve to oppose it, consider whether you can live on it. Although Massachusetts is 75 cents higher than federal minimum wage, workers still struggle to meet their costs. The fight is all the more difficult if you live in a city. If you live in Boston, you already know the city is expensive. But just how expensive? A 2013 Yahoo Finance Study found that Boston ranks in the top 10 most expensive cities to live in the U.S. Thousands of people, like Kelly Lindberg, are low-wage workers attempting to survive in the city. I'm very aware that where I live is not always the most conducive to my paycheck. I have a second job is so I can pay bills, essentially. I'm pretty frugal all the time. I won't go out as much as sometimes friends will be like, oh, let's go out for dinner. And I'll be like, well, I already did that once this week. Or I did that last week. Or, you know, I just paid a bill. So I don't really feel I can. There are very few places in the United States where a person living and having a job that's minimum wage, they can actually survive on that job. They have to work 85 hours a week to essentially make them out. Massachusetts senators are hoping to change this, having just passed a bill to raise the state minimum wage to $11 by 2016. For BU News Service, I'm Kirsten Johnson.