Federal Minimum Wage Is Worth 17% Less Now, 2-Bedroom Apartment Living is a Reach for Most Families in San Antonio
The minimum wage is increasing in a record number of states and cities — but not in Texas.
The state-set minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, in line with the federal one, last raised in 2009.
Why it matters: Even as the cost of living is skyrocketing, especially in Austin, the floor for wages remains stagnant — causing special pain for people living on the margins and working low-paying jobs.
The National Employment Law Project found that 25 states and 56 cities will raise their minimum wages by the end of 2022. In many areas, the floor will meet or exceed $15 per hour.
But before we point out how Austin, Dallas and Houston have a higher cost of living, you should know that in San Antonio, workers must make $16.77 and hour in order to reasonably afford a two-bedroom apartment in the Alamo City.
A person must earn at least $27.58 an hour to comfortably make rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Austin-Round Rock metro area, making Austin the most expensive city in Texas, per a housing report published last summer.
Black and Latino workers generally earn less than their white counterparts and are more likely to be employed in industries with lower median wages, the report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found. Measures to raise the state minimum wage went nowhere in the last legislative session.
Texas is one of 20 states not to raise its minimum wage above the federal one.
What they’re saying: “In Texas, businesses come first over workers,” Jonathan Lewis, senior policy analyst at the progressive-minded think tank Every Texan.
