The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Texas Construction Industry

The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Texas Construction Industry Research Brief UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education January 2022 The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Texas Construction Industry By Ken Jacobs, Kuochih Huang, Jenifer MacGillvary, and Enrique Lopezlira Our recently published paper “The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the United States Construction Industry” expl. [...] The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Texas Construction Industry 3 Table 3 presents the health insurance coverage status of construction workers and all workers in Texas. [...] The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Texas Construction Industry 4 Appendix: Methods We mainly rely on four sources of data: the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the March Supplement of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey (CPS), the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), and administrative data from the Medicaid, CHIP,. [...] We calculated the ratio of wage workers to non-incorporated self- employed workers based on the ACS and used it to adjust the OES data for non-incorporated self- employed workers, and then adjusted the employment counts in the ACS to match the adjusted OES data. [...] The analyses, interpretations, conclusions, and views expressed in this brief are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the UC Berkeley Labor Center, the Regents of the University of California, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, or collaborating organizations or funders.