The Walker administration denied a request for a raise in the state’s minimum wage this week, saying the current minimum wage of $7.25 is a livable wage for Wisconsinites.

Wisconsin Jobs Now, a liberal-leaning group, filed a request with the Walker administration to raise the minimum wage, citing that Wisconsin law requires that the minimum wage is a “livable wage” for workers.

However, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development denied the claim, saying it the current Wisconsin minimum wage is actually a livable wage. The federal minimum wage is also $7.25.

“The department has determined that there is no reasonable cause to believe that the wages paid to the complainants are not a living wage,” Robert Rodriguez, administrator of DWD’s Equal Rights Division, said in a letter responding to the complaint.

Peter Rickman, an organizer at Wisconsin Jobs Now and campaign director for Raise Wisconsin, said the Walker administration’s decision to maintain the current minimum wage could cost Walker the election, shifting voters to his Democratic challenger Mary Burke.

Rickman said although opponents say that raising the minimum wage “kills jobs,” it actually helps the economy. Instead of focusing on trickle down economics, Rickman said the administration should work on rebuilding the economy from the bottom up.

“If working people get higher wages, we don’t gamble it on Wall Street, we don’t stash it at the Caymen Islands, we spend it,” Rickman said. “We know that raising wages for working people is the best way to get our economy moving again.”

But Bill Smith, the Wisconsin state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said the focus should be more on improving human capital and helping workers gain experience for the current job marketplace.

To help maximize Wisconsinites’ gross wages, the focus should be matching the skill set of workers with the jobs that are available, Smith said.

“Minimum wage is a solution that was enacted years and years ago,” Smith said. “We need to stop subscribing to the economic theories of the 50 and 60s and brace the economic realities of the new century.”

The latest Marquette University Law School poll found 59 percent of the state’s registered voters favor a boost in the minimum wage, while 36 percent oppose it.

Correction: An earlier headline on this story misspelled Gov. Scott Walker’s last name.