LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s minimum wage has increased by $1 to $9 an hour in 2016.

The increase for non-tipped workers started Friday. It’s up from $8 an hour in 2015 and $7.25 before that.

The increase is the final phase of a two-step minimum wage hike approved by voters in 2014. Nebraska’s last minimum wage increase before that was in 2009.

Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, says she’s worried what the increase to $9 will mean for rural grocery stores.

Grocers backed a bill in the state Legislature this year to keep the minimum wage at $8 for most student workers 18 and younger. But it failed to get support from two-thirds of state legislators, which is required to modify a law enacted by public vote.