A bill raising the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour cleared a legislative committee last week, creating the possibility of a vote in the Senate on the first minimum wage hike in four years.

A bill raising the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour cleared a legislative committee last week, creating the possibility of a vote in the Senate on the first minimum wage hike in four years.

The bill, filed by Sen. Marc Pacheco, could give Massachusetts the highest minimum wage in the U.S. It proposes to phase in the increase over three years. The current minimum is $8 an hour. The labor and workforce development committee voted to endorse the bill last Tuesday.

“There are thousands upon thousands of working-class folks out there trying to do the right thing and not taking advantage of our welfare system,” said Pacheco, a Democrat from Taunton. “They’re out there playing by the rules and working and they don’t have a wage base that’s allowing them to meet their needs.”

Pacheco said he would not be surprised if it took another year or more to build support for an increase. He said if the bill, which has had strong support from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, did come up for a vote he would expect the July 1, 2013, implementation date for the final increase to be modified.

Business groups warn that raising the minimum wage at this time would cripple efforts to stimulate job growth, hurting the prospects of adding summer jobs for teens and putting small businesses at an even greater disadvantage to other states and online businesses.

“We need to be focusing on growing jobs and growing payroll, not encouraging employers to reduce payroll by hiring less people and reducing hours,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts.

The legislation also calls for tying future wage adjustments to the Consumer Price Index, allowing for annual cost-of-living adjustments, a plan that was rejected the last time the Massachusetts minimum wage was increased, in January 2008.