Washington is one of the states with its own minimum wage that's higher than the federal minimum wage - $2 higher, in fact, with the latest increase to $8.55/hour. It took me a while to find out that we have a state minimum wage here, but it probably contributes somewhat to the higher cost of living here. There are plenty of arguments for and against a minimum wage this high and I don't really want to get into all that, I just wanted to mention it, since there's not a state minimum wage in Texas.