Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Rick Perry's Texas: Leading the Nation in Percentage of Minimum Wage Jobs

It's always a good idea to do a little research when you hear something that sounds to good to be true. Because in most cases, it's not.

Case in point. Rick Perry's claim to fame is that Texas is the number one state in Job creation. Sounds good doesn't it. Well I'll just pack up my bags, my degree in math and engineering from MIT, and head on down.

But before I do, let me investigate a little further. NUMBER 1 IN JOBS, but WHAT KIND OF JOBS?
 Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than they did in Texas, and “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.” But as it turns out, Texas is leading the nation in one employment metric — the number and percentage of minimum wage jobs:
Additionally, Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour in 2010) compared to any state, according to a BLS report. In 2010, about 550,000 Texans were working at or below minimum wage, or about 9.5 percent of all workers paid by the hour in the state. Texas tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers…From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent.
I think I'll just UNPACK MY BAGS and stay right where I am!

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is true bos, texas was the same way even before perry was governor. But look for perry to use it as his advantage. With the amount of mexicans and central americans they have, minimum wage jobs like mcdonalds and every fast food joint job is taken.

Anonymous said...

Good research, Bosman, thanks!
mikeZ

Robert said...

Though many people would say, and rightly so, that they would rather have a minimum wage job...than no job at all.

Anonymous said...

Rick Perry has been a conservative since at least last Wednesday.