Minimum wage laws reflect political map

Gov. Mitt Romney has won eight states at this point of the night, according to the Associated Press: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Three of them — Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee — have no state minimum wage law. That means in those three states, the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour applies, even without a state law.

Georgia sets its minimum at low number, $5.15 an hour; but again, the federal minimum still applies because it’s higher than the state wage.

President Obama has taken the vote in higher-wage states: Vermont, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. All of those states set their minimum higher than the federal rate.

At the top: Vermont, at $8.46 an hour. And the Green Mountain state was called for Obama about a minute after the polls closed.