What's The Difference Between Minimum Wage and Living Wage in Dallas?

The state of Texas follows the federal minimum wage requirement of $7.25 an hour. Local jurisdictions must follow the law throughout the state. Officials in Dallas and other communities look for ways to increase the minimum wage for some workers.

For example, Dallas County commissioners were considering raising the minimum wage to $10 for county contract workers in 2014. The state attorney general's office advised them to avoid the proposal. State Attorney General Greg Abbott stated local officials had to abide by the state's labor law, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Urgent: Do You Think the Minimum Wage Should Be Raised?

Other factors come into play. Even though Abbott said local officials could make it a local requirement, the county could face lawsuits from government contract employers who would cite the Texas labor law.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins referred to a $10 minimum wage as a "living wage." He pointed out that county employees make at least $10 an hour, but that contract workers employed by outside companies only earn the state's $7.25 wage.

These workers may include security guards, janitors and other positions that force many of them to work at two or three jobs to make a living.

Vote Now: How Do You Feel About the Minimum Wage?

"People that work full-time should be able to pay for life’s necessities and pass on some optimism to their children," Jenkins told the Dallas Morning News.

While the minimum wage in Texas stood at $7.25, a living wage for an adult would be $9.29 for one adult, according to an analysis by Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The poverty wage was estimated at $5.21. Two adults with two children would need $19.43 an hour for a living age, MIT reported. It would put that couple in the poverty wage category if only one adult has a job and just at or under the living wage if both adults earned $10 an hour.

Food, child care, medical issues, housing and transportation were included in MIT's assessment.

Tell Us: Should the Government Raise the Minimum Wage?

Related Stories:

• 5 Quotes From Small, Local Business Owners on Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage

• How Have Minimum Wage Increases Affected Employment Levels and New Hiring?