HOUSTON — A VERIFY segment we did last week on the average hourly wage in Texas had a lot of you writing in. The VERIFY team confirmed Governor Greg Abbott's claim that on average Texans make about $29 an hour.
That left viewers like Patti writing in, "I am a college-educated female, and I have never been paid $29 per hour in Texas."
John wrote in, "This is bull."
And Adam wrote, "Real data is in the median."
So we wanted to verify: What is the median hourly wage in Texas?
Our source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The most recent data from May 2020 found the median hourly wage in Texas was $19.06. The average or mean hourly wage that same year was $25.19.
"There's a huge difference between $19 and $25 an hour," said UH economics professor Christopher Clarke.
So what is mean vs. median? What's the better indicator of average Texans' wages?
"The short answer is median is better," said Clarke. "In income data, the means are always going to be higher than the medians because they're reflecting the data of the very wealthy bringing up the mean."
Clarke analyzed BLS data from 2015 to 2020. He says the distinction between annual vs median wages is also of note — Texas' median annual wage in 2020 was $39,640, which is just below the national, $41,950.
That means 50% of the Texas individuals in the workforce earn less than 39K a year (including part-time workers), and 50% of workers earn more.
"It is quite dramatic compared to the Texas annual average of $52,400," said Clarke.
So we can verify, yes the median hourly wage in Texas is less than the average hourly wage, but to be fair, both average hourly wages and median hourly wages have climbed since 2015.
"Abbott's ultimate point is the economy is doing well," said Clarke. "It doesn't really matter if he uses averages if real median wages are going up too."