Research by the University of California Berkeley Labor Center indicates that 46 percent of the families of construction workers in Texas rely on safety net programs. Fifty-five percent of them lack health insurance, which is 2½ times the rate for all laborers, according to the January 2022 report.

Texas companies pay construction workers so little, almost half of them end up relying on safety-net programs costing taxpayers $1.9 billion a year, according to a new study.