From NBC's Domenico Montanaro

Edwards today will call for the minimum wage to be raised to $9.50 an hour by 2012, according to his campaign. He will speak at the National Education Association's annual meeting and at Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) candidates' forum in Philadelphia.

"No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty," Edwards said in a press release. "As president, I will raise the minimum wage and put our economy back on the side of working families."

The minimum wage is now $5.15, will rise to $5.85 on July 24 and to $7.25 in two years.