State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos (D-El Paso) has filed legislation seeking to increase Texas’ minimum wage to $15 an hour.
House Bill 110, filed ahead of the 90th Legislative Session, would amend Chapter 62 of the Texas Labor Code to require employers to pay workers at least $15 an hour or the federal minimum wage, whichever is greater.
The legislation would take effect September 1, 2027.
Texas currently follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has remained unchanged since 2009.
The bill would also repeal Section 62.151 of the Labor Code, which currently establishes criminal penalties for certain minimum-wage violations.
Rodríguez Ramos has previously introduced legislation seeking to increase the state’s minimum wage. During the 89th Legislative Session, she filed House Bill 5368, which proposed raising the minimum wage to $19 an hour and requiring annual adjustments based on inflation.
That proposal also included provisions prohibiting employers from using tip credits to reduce the minimum wage paid to tipped employees. HB 5368 did not become law.
In a previous analysis of a proposed federal minimum wage increase, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would leave approximately 1.3 million workers unemployed in an average week by 2025.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation has previously warned that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour could have significant consequences for Texas workers and businesses.
In a 2021 analysis, the organization cited estimates that Texas could lose more than 370,000 jobs over six years under a similar proposal, with younger and less-experienced workers facing the greatest risk.
The analysis also pointed to a study of Seattle’s minimum wage increase that found a 9.4 percent reduction in hours worked by low-skilled employees and a 6.8 percent decline in low-wage jobs.
The CBO also estimated that the increase would raise prices as businesses passed higher labor costs on to consumers, while reducing business income and overall economic output.
HB 110 is among the early bills filed ahead of the 90th Legislative Session, which begins January 12, 2027.
