. >> reporter: with little hope congress will raise the minimum wage twage. in september california governor jerry brown approved a gradual rise in the state's minimum wage to $10 by 2016. last month the town of seatac in washington state raised to raise the local minimum wage to $15 an hour. the highest in the country. >> people finally will make ends meet without having to work two or three jobs with decent pay and decent benefits. this is great for the workers and the community here. >> reporter: in d.c. city council every member greed the old minimum of $8.25 an hour was too low. the question was how high to go? to $10 or $11.50? for minimum wage worker means weaning her family off food stamps. >> i did apply for public assistance for my son and i to get food stamps because that have issue, because he's still using formula. price wise things have just shot up. gas up. house something up in this area. but our wages aren't up. >> reporter: every morning 29-year-old yiya wakes up at 6:00 a.m. to get her son ready for the day before she goes to work. she is a