PROVIDENCE — A bill calling for automatic annual increases in the minimum wage to keep it in line with “the rate of inflation” was approved by the Senate Labor Committee on Wednesday.

The state’s minimum wage has stood at $7.40 an hour since Jan. 1, 2007.

Under the version now headed for the full Senate, the state would use the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers in the Northeast to adjust the rate annually, starting in January 2011, “to maintain employee purchasing power by increasing the current year’s minimum wage rate by the rate of inflation up to, but not more than, 3 percent.”

Within the Senate, the bill introduced by Rep. Leonidas Raptakis, D-Coventry, has high-level cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors, D-Cumberland; Senate Majority Whip Dominick Ruggerio, D-Providence; Frank Ciccone, D-Providence; and John Tassoni, D-Smithfield.

Ruggerio and Ciccone are employed by affiliates of the Laborers International Union of North America, while Tassoni is a business agent for the largest state employees union, Council 94 of the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees.

A similar bill cleared the Senate last year, despite objections from the business community, and then stalled out in the House.

kgregg@projo.com