Higher minimum wage would be big for Texas
Only 3.3 percent of hourly workers in America are paid exactly the federal minimum wage, which since 2009 has been $7.25. If you’re one of them, you most likely live in Texas.
The Lone Star State has more minimum wage earners than any other state in the country, counting workers such as agricultural laborers who may be paid even less than that — 287,000 of them in 2015, making up 11.2 percent of the total in the country, according to new calculations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Much of that is due to Texas’ pure size. The state ranks fifth in the percentage of its hourly workforce that’s paid exactly the minimum wage or less, at 4.7 percent, which is below Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, and Mississippi. Also, as wages rise gradually with the cost of living, the number of people making less than the federal minimum wage declines.
Still, that’s a lot of people — disproportionately female and less educated — working for little money. And it’s also an illustration of how much impact Texas could have on its citizens if it were to raise its minimum wage.
To realize why, look at California. It’s the state with the most hourly workers overall, but only 1.2 percent of them are paid less than the federal minimum wage, because the state minimum wage — currently $10 an hour — has been running well above that for some time now. The state’s minimum wage is now scheduled to rise even faster, reaching $15 in 2022.