Minimum wage in Texas

The minimum wage in Texas is $5.15 per hour. Workers who are not covered by the federal minimum wage are covered by the Texas state minimum wage laws. Some of the provisions of the Texas Minimum Wage Act can be found in Chapter 62 of the Texas Labor Code that details exemptions to the state minimum wage.

The Texas state minimum wage does not apply to domestics, family members, certain youths and students, inmates, dairying and production of livestock, certain employees of religious, educational, charitable, or nonprofit organizations, professionals, salespersons, or public official. In addition, cities and municipalities in Texas are not allowed to adopt a higher minimum wage rate that is the current state’s minimum wage rate.

In 2005 a study was conducted in the state of Texas that found 7.2% or approximately 235,000 workers in Texas earned at or below $5.15 per hour. At least 16% of the statewide workforce at that time earned up to $7.50 per hour with nearly half or 686,000 of these workers earned less than $6.50 per hour. Some of these workers were home health and child care worker, food preparation and housekeeping, retail sales and apparel workers and security guards and parking lot attendants.

It is worth noting that $7.50 per hour is the threshold for low wage workers in this study. As a result, female workers make up 51.7% of the low wage workforce in Texas while Hispanics make up 53.4% of this workforce. The majority of low wage workers are twenty years of age and older. Finally, nearly 70% of Texas’ low-wage employees work thirty-five hours or more a week and are the sole earners for their families.

As you can see the majority of workers in Texas are currently making more than the state minimum wage rate as well as the proposed federal minimum wage rate of $7.15 per hour that is still being debated in Congress. My research found no proposed legislation in Texas to raise the minimum wage rate.