U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Southwest Information Office

MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS IN TEXAS - 2010 (PDF)

Among hourly-paid workers in Texas, 550,000 had earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See chart 1.) Nearly 5.8 million workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 55.7 percent of all Texas wage and salary workers.¹. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that the number of Texans paid at or below the Federal minimum wage increased as the number of workers earning the exact Federal minimum wage rose, while the number of Texans paid below the minimum wage declined. Combined, these workers accounted for 9.5 percent of all hourly-paid workers in Texas.². (See chart 2 and table 1.)

Chart 1. Employed wage and salary workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the prevailing
Federal minimum wage in Texas, annual averages, 1997-2010

In the United States, 72.9 million workers were paid at hourly rates in 2010, representing 58.8 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 1.8 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage and about 2.5 million additional workers earned wages below the minimum. Together, the nearly 4.4 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 6.0 percent of all hourly-paid workers in the nation, up from 4.9 percent in 2009.

With the exception of 2003, the number of hourly-paid workers at or below the Federal minimum wage declined steadily in Texas from 1998 to 2006. (See chart 1.) However, annual increases in the Federal minimum wage from 2007 through 2009 contributed to increased numbers and higher percentages of workers in the State receiving pay at or below the mandated level. Although the Federal minimum wage was unchanged in 2010, the number of workers with pay at or below the minimum wage increased in both the State and the nation.

The number of Texas workers with hourly pay at or below the Federal minimum rose by 76,000 in 2010, with men and women accounting for nearly equal portions of the rise. The number of men earning at or below the Federal minimum wage rose by 36,000, an increase of almost 20 percent from 2009. The number of women earning at or below the Federal minimum rose by 39,000, an increase of less than 14 percent. As a result, men accounted for nearly 41 percent of the State’s workers with wages at or below the mandated level in 2010, their highest share since 2003. However, women continued to have a higher percentage of workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage than men, 11.9 percent compared to 7.4 percent. (See chart 2.)

Chart 2. 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, 1997-2010

The median hourly earnings for all hourly-paid wage and salary workers in Texas stood at $11.20 per hour in 2010; nationally, the median was $12.50.³. For men and for women, the median hourly rates in Texas were $12.13 and $10.24, respectively. (See table 1.) Nationally, the median hourly rates were $13.76 for men and $11.83 for women.

Texas were $12.13 and $10.24, respectively. (See table 1.) Nationally, the median hourly rates were $13.76 for men and $11.83 for women. Texas, at 9.5 percent, tied with Mississippi for the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2010. Alabama and West Virginia followed, each at 9.3 percent. Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and California had the lowest percentage of workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage (2 percent or less). Texas accounted for 12.6 percent of all U.S. workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage in 2010, down from 13.3 percent in 2009. It should be noted that as of January 1, 2011, 17 states and the District of Columbia had laws establishing minimum wage standards that exceeded the Federal level of $7.25 per hour; on January 1, 2010, that number stood at 14⁴. (See table 1 and chart 3.)

Chart 3. Minimum wage laws in the States, January 1, 2011

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division.

Technical Note

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' data on minimum wage earners are derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a nationwide sample survey of households that includes questions enabling the identification of hourly-paid workers and their hourly wage rate. Data in this summary are annual averages.

Minimum wage data, particularly levels, for each year are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years because of the introduction of revised population controls used in the CPS. For technical documentation and related information, including reliability of the CPS estimates, see www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm.

It should be noted that the presence of a sizable number of workers with reported wages below the minimum does not necessarily indicate violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as there are exemptions to the minimum wage provisions of the law. The estimates of the numbers of minimum and subminimum wage workers presented in the accompanying tables pertain to workers paid at hourly rates; salaried and other non-hourly workers are excluded. As such, the actual number of workers with earnings at or below the prevailing minimum is undoubtedly understated. Research has shown that a relatively smaller number and share of salaried workers and others not paid by the hour have earnings that, when translated into hourly rates, are at or below the minimum wage. However, BLS does not routinely estimate hourly earnings for non-hourly workers because of data concerns that arise in producing these estimates. For further information, see Steven Haugen and Earl Mellor, "Estimating the number of minimum wage workers," Monthly Labor Review, January 1990 at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1990/01/rpt1full.pdf.

The prevailing Federal minimum wage was $2.90 in 1979, $3.10 in 1980, and $3.35 in 1981-89. The minimum wage rose to $3.80 on April 1, 1990, to $4.25 on April 1, 1991, to $4.75 on October 1, 1996, to $5.15 on September 1, 1997, to $5.85 on July 24, 2007, to $6.55 on July 24, 2008, and to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

This release is available on our Web site at www.bls.gov/ro6/home.htm. If you have additional questions, you can contact the Southwest Information Office at 972-850-4800. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

Last Modified Date: March 28, 2011