Wages In Texas Not Up To Par For Many

The federal poverty level for a family of four is $20,650. But will this meet the basic needs for a family of four in Texas? Not according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities. This Austin-based non-partisan group did a study to find how much income would be required to meet a family's needs.

They found that a family of four would need from $10,000 to $25,000 more than the official poverty level figure depending on what part of Texas they live in. A family in Brownsville would need $29,982, while a family in Fort Worth would need $45,770.

Even worse, these figures assume the families had insurance provided by an employer, paid no more in rent or house payments than what local housing subsidies would pay, never ate out and rarely ate meat. That sounds like subsistence living to me.

At least one-third of Texas families do not come up to these levels. Hell, a huge portion of our state employees don't even make those kind of salaries. This is what we are left with after years of Republican leadership. While our corporate and government leaders are doing better than ever, salaries for workers have stagnated and left them in an ever-worsening condition.

The Republicans in our state and national leadership don't seem to care about working families. We must dump these people in the next election, and put some people in office that will see that workers get their fair share of the economic pie.

Listed below are the salaries a family of four would need to meet basic needs in various Texas cities:

Abiliene - $32,674
Amarillo - $33,757
Austin-Round Rock - $43,640
Beaumont-Port Arthur - $32,499
Brownsville-Harlingen - $29,982
Bryan-College Station - $38,557
Corpus Christi - $37,429
Dallas-Plano-Irving - $43,723
Fort Worth-Arlington - $45,770
El Paso - $36,508
Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land - $43,028
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood - $34,522
Laredo - $33,300
Longview - $34,466
Lubbock - $34,245
McAllen-Edinburg-Pharr - $34,624
Midland - $33,103
Odessa - $32,222
San Angelo - $36,527
San Antonio - $40,826
Sherman-Denison - $38,697
Texarkana - $34,313
Tyler - $36,274
Victoria - $37,026
Waco - $34,312
Wichita Falls - $33,505