Texas farm laborers and other sub-minimum wage workers should have the benefit of a wage floor that the vast majority of U.S. workers receive. They work hard. They pursue the American dream with as much vigor as anyone. Yet they do not benefit from a national policy that applies to virtually everyone else because decades ago, Congress decided in a different economic environment to leave wage floors in a few job categories to the states. Even prison laborers in private Texas prisons have laws guaranteeing them at least the federal minimum wage.
Most states set state minimum wages at the federal level or higher.
Texas is long overdue in joining that pack. Sponsorship of the bill by Sibley, whose conservative credentials are unchallenged, may well be the factor that puts this long-term effort over the top. In making these key appointments, Bush unfathomably passed over Lockheed Martin. The Texas House today advanced HB 1094 by Rep. Patricia Gray, D-Galveston, a bill that would help the poorest Medicare patients pay for prescription drugs, AP reports. The bill is aimed at those who cannot afford supplemental insurance.