Barring a last-minute fast-track miracle, our lameass legislators have failed to pass any and all bills proposing to raise the state hourly minimum wage, stuck for more than nine years at a pathetic $5.15 an hour. That’s a 60-year low compared to the pay of other U.S. workers, and the millions of workers earning that minimum have the least purchasing power they’ve had in 50 years. According to the D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, 31 states, not to mention the District of Columbia, now have minimum wages higher than the federal level. Texas isn’t one of them. (For more, see www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2666.) Jeremy Warren, spokesman for Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston – who filed a minimum-wage-raise bill – tried to be positive about the situation at press time. “As long as there’s still time in the session,” he said, “an issue is not dead.”
This article appears in May 11 • 2007.