Texas: Miracle or Myth?

[Kennah]

http://www.texaswatch.org/2011/08/texas-miracle-or-myth/

What does it mean to be a middle class wage-earner and consumer in Texas?

For too many families, it means a struggle to make ends meet. Texans want safe, stable jobs with decent wages and reasonable benefits that allow them to raise a family, own a home, and save for a comfortable retirement. Much has been made lately about job growth in Texas. Unfortunately, for middle class Texans, the so-called "Texas Miracle" has been more myth than reality. So, how does Texas stack up to the rest of the nation on key quality of life indicators?

So, how about those jobs? Texas has the highest rate of workers paid at or below the federal minimum wage and our median hourly wage is 10% lower than the national average. We are dead last in the percent of individuals with health insurance and are near the bottom in the percent of workers with employer-based health insurance.

As for workplace safety, nine Texans die on the job every week, making Texas the deadliest state to work in, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a percentage of workers, we also have the highest rate of workplace fatalities among the 10 biggest states. Also, with a quarter of workers without workers’ compensation coverage, we are last in workers’ compensation coverage, lagging far behind the rest of the country.

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God bless Texas, but to hell with ordinary working Texans. Wonder if that will be Perry's campaign slogan?

TexasWatch.org has a two PDF that sums up everything quite well.

http://www.texaswatch.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Myth-Stat-layout-4.pdf

[begin_within]

1. But how will this ever get airtime on the commercial media?

[BootinUp]

2. Perry's slogan should be:

"You thought Bush was bad!"

[Skittles]

3. Perry is all hat and no cattle