Are you owed pay from a Texas job?
Texas wage law may entitle you to unpaid overtime, missed break premiums and unreimbursed expenses. Deadlines, filing routes and available remedies depend on what happened and which law applies.
Not sure the math is off? You can request a review even without your pay records in hand.
Updated August 21, 2026
Texas mostly follows federal law for wages and hours: overtime after forty hours in a week under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal minimum wage, and no state requirement for meal or rest breaks. The Texas Payday Law sets when and how you must be paid and gives you a way to file an unpaid-wage claim with the state. Because the state layer is thin, the federal deadline and the Payday Law window both matter.
Wage-and-hour information by city in Texas
Select your city for locally relevant filing information, agency routes, and a case review with your state already selected.
- AustinWage-and-hour information
- DallasWage-and-hour information
- El PasoWage-and-hour information
- Fort WorthWage-and-hour information
- HoustonWage-and-hour information
- San AntonioWage-and-hour information
What Texas law requires.
The rules that most often get broken, each linked to the statute or agency guidance it comes from. More on Texas wage rules: Texas Workforce Commission ↗.
Texas has no state overtime law; the federal FLSA governs, requiring 1.5x the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek for covered, nonexempt employees.
Texas adopts the federal minimum wage and does not set a higher state rate.
Neither Texas nor federal law generally requires employers to provide meal or rest breaks; under federal rules, short breaks that are given are typically counted as paid time.
The Payday Law governs when wages are due, including final pay, within six days for a discharge and by the next regular payday for a resignation, and lets you file a wage claim with the state.
Being called an independent contractor does not decide it; under the FLSA's economic-reality test, a misclassified worker keeps federal overtime and minimum-wage protections.
Unpaid wages, missed breaks, and misclassification add up fast, often across a whole crew. A free, private review tells you what you may be owed.
How long you have.
A federal FLSA overtime or minimum-wage claim is generally subject to a two-year limit, or three years for a willful violation. A Texas Payday Law claim with the state must generally be filed within 180 days of when the wages were due. The two run on separate clocks, so the earlier one can control.