Texas ranked as worst state to work in (Tyler, Post: wages, income tax)

[malcorub16]

What kind of benefits do new mothers and new fathers get from Texas?

In California, as a father of four I was able to take 12 weeks of FMLA per child within one year of birth as I would have in any state. But I also received 60% of my gross pay (untaxed, yes I know the money originally comes from state income taxes) for 6 weeks for bonding time from the state which was a nice benefit.

My wife received those 60%/6 weeks for bonding time plus 6 more partially paid weeks for disability.

Also, does your vacation time/sick time roll over from year to year or do you lose it if you don't use it?

BTW, there is no doubt how politically bias the article is. You can tell just by looking at the pictures they chose for it.

[ChristieP]

If you're willing to pay California state income taxes, then it's good that you at least got a portion of them back in the maternity/paternity benefits. Personally, I don't have any kids, so my tax money would just go to the state. But I am glad I live in Texas where I don't pay state income tax.

My employer gives mom and dad both 2 weeks 100% pay for parental leave, and then mom can also file for disability.

I haven't seen an employer with "use it or lose it" vacation and sick time in well over a decade. The trend now is "unlimited PTO" time for salaried employees.

[DesertRat56]

Originally Posted by Bailey340

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/14/thes...d-work-in.html

I was surprised to see Texas as the worst state to work in. The rankings seems heavily weighted in terms of equality, human rights, etc.

OMG!!! I have moved to Texas for work and it is not the worst. Pay is better than anywhere else, cost of living is average and depending on the town or city, people are fine. I lived in Midland, Texas in the 80's and could not get out of that town fast enough, but it was Midland, the dark, crusty back side of the bible belt. Odessa, 20 miles away was a totally different atmosphere. If you want to earn a good living move to Dallas, Texas. The thing about Dallas is that there porportionally few Texans there. Maybe that is why my experience is opposite from that article. Human rights and equality are a problem in ALL southern states, it's why it is called "the bible belt". And Texas has the bright, shiny buckle (Dallas) as well as the backside of that belt. You can find anything you want in Texas, but Dallas has a lot of good companies to work for.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by DesertRat56

OMG!!! I have moved to Texas for work and it is not the worst. Pay is better than anywhere else, cost of living is average and depending on the town or city, people are fine. I lived in Midland, Texas in the 80's and could not get out of that town fast enough, but it was Midland, the dark, crusty back side of the bible belt. Odessa, 20 miles away was a totally different atmosphere. If you want to earn a good living move to Dallas, Texas. The thing about Dallas is that there porportionally few Texans there. Maybe that is why my experience is opposite from that article. Human rights and equality are a problem in ALL southern states, it's why it is called "the bible belt". And Texas has the bright, shiny buckle (Dallas) as well as the backside of that belt. You can find anything you want in Texas, but Dallas has a lot of good companies to work for.

Really? Pay is better than anywhere else huh? Care to clarify that statement?

[Veritas Vincit]

All the 'worst states to work' are gaining in population, so it seems like people are 'voting with their feet' in ways contrary to the thinking of people at CNBC.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

If you're willing to pay California state income taxes, then it's good that you at least got a portion of them back in the maternity/paternity benefits. Personally, I don't have any kids, so my tax money would just go to the state. But I am glad I live in Texas where I don't pay state income tax.

My employer gives mom and dad both 2 weeks 100% pay for parental leave, and then mom can also file for disability.

I haven't seen an employer with "use it or lose it" vacation and sick time in well over a decade. The trend now is "unlimited PTO" time for salaried employees.

Ah, my company is international and I work remotely with folks within the same company but from different states within the US. Some of them have to rush to use their PTO before the end of the year or they will lose it. I believe it's my co-workers in New Mexico and in Florida, wasn't sure if Texas was like that too.

[blameyourself]

What I find most interesting in these replies is it appears apparent most of the posters didn't even look at the article and just ran with a headline.

And of course there's all the childish labeling.

From there, there's a variety of divergent tangents that have nothing to do with the article.

Ironically, CNBC has listed Texas in the top five in its top states for business for every year since 2007 and had them at the number one position for a variety of those years. Yet when they come out with an article that simply talks about the employees side of the equation, now it's simply a liberal rag (yet I never heard any of those comments when Texas was in the top five for business in all those other years...and btw the state is still listed at #6 this year).

I don't care if people don't agree with the metrics that were used on the employee side, but immediately going into name calling of the source is silly when people haven't even read the article. And then talking about the business side tells me that most of the posters were too lazy to actually read the article.

"Texas' low ranking in its Life, Health & Inclusion score is attributed to a lack of inclusiveness, according to CNBC, considering factors such as laws targeting the LGBTQ+ population, voting rights, and the strict abortion ban implemented statewide. Another weakness identified in the study was worker protections." It also list the health infrastructure.

There are plenty of economic metrics that give the state a favorable ranking of #6. It's just a different gauge and set of metrics used.

[albert648]

The lack of personal income tax alone puts it above at least 41 out of 50 states as far as I'm concerned.

These rankings are rarely ever worth the paper they're written on.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by albert648

The lack of personal income tax alone puts it above at least 41 out of 50 states as far as I'm concerned.

These rankings are rarely ever worth the paper they're written on.

OK, well I guess Texas being listed by CNBC as #1 for a variety of years on the business side and in the top 5 for every year from 2007-2022 (and #6 this year) must be complete hogwash. Got it.

[ddeemo]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

Yeah, nonsensical labeling. I think it's amazing to have a thought process like that. Clearly that poster went to a different business school than I went to and I would never want an HR person like that working for any business I owned.

Of course I realize that having average employees may keep your doors open for a bit, but great employees will ensure you're profitable for years to come (and that's the difference in my thinking). And a great employee is worth their weight in gold. Look at any type of book listing the best companies to work for in America, and you'll find that most of those companies do everything in their power to keep their employees happy (and they are all highly profitable). They're not focused on the ease of firing someone or paperwork related issues that make their job easier. And those type of companies have very low turnover which is very costly. They will always attract the best employees because people understand that companies like those value their workers.

The company I work for now is considered one such company and if you are the type of person that even brings up politics, you won't last long there. The last thing they want are people that focus on behavior based on contentious political thinking.

But yeah I'm sure people are flocking to companies that think it's cool to only pay minimum wage or the ease of firing someone.

P.S. The topic is Texas being ranked as the worst state to live in. The topic is not what makes an HR person's job easy to do

If you bothered to read the article, it is quite clear that CNBC criteria was based on only Life, Health and Inclusion score - essentially their judgement (since no breakout given) of things like LGBQT+ policies and Reproductive rights, not really about employment. It is pretty clear that their criteria is based on politics and not work environment.

If you go to CNBCs article titled America’s Top States for Business - that has all 10 criteria, Texas comes in 6th best - with 2nd best economy and 2nd best work force.

Your rant here seem to make a lot of assumptions with zero backing - who said anything about minimum wage or ease of firing but you clearly did not go to a good business school if you think min wage laws or making it hard to fire someone makes much sense.