A new study from Oxfam shows that Texas is one of the worst paces to be an employee in the United States. Overall, the state ranks seventh from the bottom.
The annual Oxfam Best and Worst States to Work in the U.S. study looks at a variety of factors when it comes to quality of life for workers. These include wages, paid time off, workplace protections, and other factors that add up to a stable and secure workforce. Texas ranks in the bottom half of all measures, and near the bottom of most.
“At the bottom of the index, the five lowest-ranking states fall once again in the South,” reads the report. Texas beats only North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina.
The reasons for Texas’s dismal showing are myriad. The state has not raised the minimum wage beyond the federally mandated $7.25, which has been in place for 15 years, the longest in American history. Though Texas has a supposedly low cost of living thanks to its lack of state income tax, the effective tax rate in the state is actually higher than California’s thanks to the universal sales tax. This burden tends to fall more on lower earning households than higher ones, adding to the strain a low minimum wage causes.
Still, the low cost of fuel, food, and rent does offset some of the damage the low minimum wage causes. This gives Texas its highest (but still dismal) score in the individual categories, ranking 37th in wage dimension.
Advocating for higher wages in Texas is difficult thanks to its decidedly anti-union political environment. Texas is one of only five states to receive zero points when it comes to protections for organizing workers. This indicates they have no state support for the right to organize and therefore have to rely entirely on federal protections to do so.
The fight against unionization is exemplified in Tesla. CEO Elon Musk moved operations of Tesla to Texas in 2021 and has steadily fought unionization in his company ever since. Telsa is the only car manufacturer in the United States that does not have union support and keeping it that way is one possible reason Musk has expanded operations in the state.
Unsurprisingly, the failure of state protections for workers falls hardest on women and people of color. Texas has no laws mandating paid leave for medical care or family emergencies. It remains a “right to work” state, which often means employers can fire workers for any reason they wish. As this includes maternity leave, Texas women often have to work until late into their pregnancies and return quicker than medically recommended.
The Oxfam data is meant to help states see where they are failing to protect their workers and fill in the gaps left by the federal government. Unfortunately, Texas has a lot of gaps to fill, and it doesn’t seem to be trying to do so any time soon.
