HOUSTON — When taking questions at a business roundtable in Houston Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott also talked about hourly wages in Texas.
This statement caught our attention:
"The average hourly wage in Texas is $29 an hour," said Abbott.
At first glance, it seemed a bit high. At $29 an hour, that means the average Texan makes more than $60,000 a year.
So we wanted to verify: What is the average hourly wage in Texas?
Our source is The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It reports on average Texans got paid $28.55 per hour in 2021. That is about $2 less than the national average of $30.59 per hour.
When Abbott took office in 2015, the average wage per hour was $24.39. It's climbed more than $4 throughout his two terms.
And so far this year, it's even higher than 2021's average. Early numbers show the average hourly rate in Texas is $30.19.
So we can verify the governor's claim about the average hourly wage in Texas being $29 to be true.
But, it's worth noting that at $28.55 an hour that 45 cents would translate to $972 fewer dollars a year into someone's pocket.