minimum wage

just went up in part of Australia,

and for the US congress(or just scroll below to the coin tray.),

but...
from The Tennesean: "Congress stiffs workers"

The Senate needed 60 votes under an arrangement to approve the wage increase, but the vote was only 52-46 in favor, with eight Republicans and one independent joining Democrats in the effort. The House Appropriations Committee had recently voted for the increase, but its prospects for a full House approval look bleak. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said the proposal probably won't make it to the House floor.

That's what Americans get from this Congress, controlled by Republicans and beholden at every turn to the wishes of businesses and special interests. Hollow arguments that raising the minimum wage would somehow damage the U.S. economy have never held up, and with each rejection of raising the wage the $5.15 standard buys less and less when adjusted for inflation. The wage hasn't been raised since 1997.

An increase in the minimum wage would be a step based on principle — a principle that American workers are valued as important. But principle has been overlooked, while at the same time Congress finds time to discuss a gay-marriage amendment, a flag-burning amendment and argue over who's more patriotic, all in the name of values. What values can members of Congress claim when they point to hard-working American people and say the value of their work bottoms out at $5.15 per hour?

and here's the senate link that explains that a 3/5 vote was needed in the house and senate(but not why.). The map is from the Department of Labor's minimum wage page, which says that for certain categories of workers, 2.65/hr is the minimum rate in Kansas, and that O.T. is onlypaid after the 46th hour there(!). What's the matter with Kansas indeed.