Nissan Motor Co. will raise pay for its employees in Mississippi and Tennessee. The company has told its employees it will increase their wages starting in October at its Canton, Miss., and Smyrna, Tenn., assembly plants, as well as its Decherd, Tenn., engine plant. Nissan says pay will go up by 55 cents an hour for production employees and 65 cents an hour for maintenance technicians. That’s about a 2% increase over the average hourly wage that workers in Smyrna and Canton make now. Production and maintenance workers make $2 an hour less, on average, in Canton than in Smynra. It’s the first raise for Nissan’s American workers since 2006. The company says improving auto sales and a strengthening economy are allowing it to increase pay.