Raising the state minimum wage

The costs of living have soared over the past two decades, but American wages have been stagnant. If I lived in Maine, I would need to make $17/hour to live securely. In some states the living wage is as high as $40/hour, like Alaska. Raising the state minimum wage to $10/hour, after looking at these statistics, is the least we could do.
If people are paid a realistic living wage, it would decrease health care costs, the amount of homeless and food insecure citizens, increase college enrollment (because people would have a higher chance of being able to afford it), and allow us to positively contribute to society, or even, dare I say, pursue our dreams.
We cannot excel as a state if our citizens can barely afford the basic necessities of life because we continue to pay a minimum wage that is downright criminal. Please raise the state minimum wage to $10/hour.
This would eliminate the thousands of full time employees that must take advantage of programs such as food stamps etc…
Raising the minimum wage would also restore the dignity of the middle and thus make for a more positive and productive state.