FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: FOR RELEASE: Cheryl Abbot, Regional Economist April 25, 2008 Dallas, TX (214) 767-6970 MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN TEXAS: 2007 In 2007, 221,000 hourly-paid workers in Texas had earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage (1), according to the U.S. Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See chart A.) In the State, about 5.6 million workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 53.9 percent of all wage and salary workers (2). Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage accounted for 4.0 percent of these hourly-paid workers in Texas (3). This was one of the highest shares of workers in this pay range in the nation. (See table 1.) Chart A. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Texas, annual averages, 1998-2007
![Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or
below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Texas, annual averages, 1998-2007](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080917103907im_/http://www.bls.gov/ro6/fax/minwage_tx_charta.gif)
According to Current Population Survey (CPS) estimates for 2007, 75.9 million workers in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.5 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 267,000 were reported as earning exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage. Nearly 1.5 million were reported as earning wages below the minimum. Together, these 1.7 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 2.3 percent of all hourly-paid workers. With the exception of a slight uptick in 2003, the number of hourly-paid workers at or below the Federal minimum wage had been steadily declining in Texas since 1998. That trend came to a halt in 2007 as both a larger number and a higher percentage of workers in the State received hourly wages at or below the increased Federal minimum. (See chart A.) The most significant reversal came among female hourly workers in the State. Between 2006 and 2007, the number of women at or below the new Federal minimum wage rose sharply while the number of men was unchanged. Women earning at or below the minimum wage as a percent of all hourly-paid female workers in Texas, rose to 5.7 percent in 2007, up from 3.8 percent in 2006; the percentage for men, at 2.4 percent in 2007, was little changed over the year. As a result of the 2007 increase among women workers, they now account for about 69 percent of all Texas hourly-paid workers who earned the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less in 2007, up from about 60 percent in 2006. (See table A and chart B.) Chart B. Percentage of employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Texas, by sex, annual averages, 1998-2007
![Percentage of employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with
earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage in Texas, by sex, annual
averages, 1998-2007](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080917103907im_/http://www.bls.gov/ro6/fax/minwage_tx_chartb.gif)
Overall, Texas wage and salary workers paid hourly rates (4) had median hourly earnings of $10.54 in 2007; nationally, the median was $11.95. The 2007 median hourly rates for men and for women in Texas were $11.54 and $9.86, respectively. (See table A.) For the United States as a whole, the comparable figures were $12.95 for men and $10.98 for women. Table A. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and median earnings of all hourly-paid workers in Texas, annual averages, 1998-2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | At or below Federal Minimun Wage | All hourly-paid | (number of workers in thousands) | workers |----------------------------------|-------------------------- | | | | Number of | Median | | Below | At | workers | earnings Texas | Total |Prevailing| Prevailing |(thousands) | (in dollars) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total, both sexes 1998... 466 255 211 5,055 $8.23 1999... 337 186 151 4,990 8.54 2000... 297 174 123 5,112 9.01 2001... 215 128 87 5,101 9.48 2002... 205 129 76 5,002 9.76 2003... 235 161 74 5,258 9.82 2004... 198 131 67 5,293 9.95 2005... 176 121 55 5,467 10.04 2006... 173 121 52 5,724 10.22 2007... 221 175 46 5,585 10.54 Men 1998... 186 108 78 2,660 $8.97 1999... 120 68 52 2,560 9.35 2000... 114 70 44 2,667 9.83 2001... 90 50 40 2,712 10.11 2002... 82 61 21 2,623 10.11 2003... 96 70 26 2,704 10.18 2004... 77 48 29 2,753 10.41 2005... 67 48 19 2,835 10.87 2006... 69 47 22 3,011 11.18 2007... 69 53 16 2,895 11.54 Women 1998... 280 147 133 2,395 $7.50 1999... 217 118 99 2,430 7.84 2000... 183 104 79 2,445 8.18 2001... 125 78 47 2,389 8.55 2002... 123 68 55 2,379 8.90 2003... 139 91 48 2,553 8.95 2004... 122 84 38 2,541 9.33 2005... 110 73 37 2,632 9.24 2006... 104 74 30 2,713 9.80 2007... 152 122 30 2,690 9.86 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2007, Mississippi, at 4.5 percent, had the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage, followed by Louisiana at 4.3 percent. Texas, Massachusetts, and South Carolina tied for third with 4.0 percent of hourly-paid workers at or below the Federal minimum. Alabama and West Virginia also tied at 3.3 percent, followed by Georgia at 3.2 percent. Rounding out the 10 states with the highest percentages of workers at or below the Federal minimum wage were Kansas and Nebraska, both at 3.1 percent. Montana, California, Washington, and Oregon had the lowest rates, each with less than 1 percent of hourly-paid workers earning the Federal minimum or below. It should be noted that as of January 1, 2008, 32 states and the District of Columbia had laws establishing minimum wage standards that exceeded the Federal level of $5.85 per hour (5). (See table 1 and chart C.) Chart C. Minimum wage laws in the States, January 1, 2008
![Minimum wage laws in the States, January 1, 2008](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080917103907im_/http://www.bls.gov/ro6/fax/minwage_tx_chartc.gif)
Last Modified Date: April 25, 2008