Rick Perry - Minimum Wage Capital of the World

...or at least, in the U.S.

Like all Republican politicians (i.e. corporate raider Mitt Romney etc.), they like to brag about their record for job creation.

From Huff Po Hill - Much has been made about Texas' apparent immunity to America's economic anemia: It's unemployment is lower and its growth has been more robust than most other states. Various explanations have been given: 

• Rick Perry's gubernatorial prowess,
• a drug trade trickle-down effect,
• oil prices,
• a burgeoning high-tech sector,
• and -- our own explanation -- a massive uptick in Keep Austin Weird bumper sticker sales.

Jason Cherkis spent the last week in the Lone Star State and found that not everyone has enjoyed the Texas Miracle: "Texas is struggling right along with every other state. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Texas had recently bumped up to 8.2 percent unemployment in June which puts it below the national average." (It was 8.1 percent last year).

Texas Unemployment Rate Chart by YCharts

Plenty of states without miracles posted lower unemployment rates; New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, among others are all out performing Texas. Of the all the jobs in Texas created last year, 37 percent paid at or below minimum wage -- and the state leads the nation in total minimum wage workers, according to a recent New York Times report.

Full article here: Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle' Includes Crowded Homeless Shelters, Low-Wage Jobs, Worker Deaths

* If Texas, whose state is now experiencing a severe drought, gets hit with a huge hurricane and asks for federal assistance, is "big government" ok? Or will all their oil companies have to pick up the tap?

Perry and Palin at the Republican Governors Association

To date, one can qualify for up to the maximum of 57 weeks of EUC in Texas (NOT 99 weeks) - 20 weeks of Tier One extended unemployment compensation if they exhaust regular State UI benefits by December 24, 2011. Tier Two pays up to 14 weeks of additional benefits to claimants who exhaust Tier One benefits by December 31, 2011. Tier Three pays up to 13 weeks of their final benefits to claimants who exhaust Tier Two benefits by December 31, 2011.