Congratulations, Texas! You're the big winner … in a category that’s kind of dubious.
The Lone Star state has more minimum wage earners than any other state in the country, counting workers such as agricultural laborers who may be paid even less than that -- 287,000 of them in 2015, making up 11.2 percent of the total in the country, according to new calculations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Much of that is due to Texas' pure size. The state ranks fifth in the percentage of its hourly workforce that's paid exactly the minimum wage or less, at 4.7 percent, which is below Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, and Mississippi.
Of course, California is bigger than Texas, but since its minimum wage is well above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour—California’s is currently $10 an hour and heading to $15—it has fewer workers making that pittance.
It's easy to say raising the minimum wage in Texas would be a great chance to improve the lives of a lot of workers, but this is Texas we’re talking about. Gov. Greg Abbott is probably getting a press release ready, bragging about this statistic as a way to lure more businesses to the state.