What is the minimum wage in Texas?
Texas adopts the federal floor and adds no state increase. The exposure sits in deductions and unpaid time that push effective pay below it.
Last updated: August 02, 2026
Direct Answer
The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 per hour, matching the federal minimum wage. Texas has not adopted a higher state rate, and state law generally prevents Texas cities from setting their own private-sector minimum wage. Tipped employees may be paid a cash wage of $2.13 per hour only if tips bring them to at least $7.25 for all hours worked.
Controlling authority: Texas Payday Law, Tex. Labor Code ch. 61, administered by the TWC Wage and Hour department.
Texas adopts the federal floor and adds nothing
Most Texas employers pay above minimum wage, which leads them to assume minimum wage law is irrelevant to them. It is not, because the same statute governs when deductions, unreimbursed uniform costs, or unpaid time push an employee's effective rate below the floor. A $9 per hour employee who buys required uniforms and works 30 unpaid minutes daily can fall under $7.25 in effect, and that math is a claim.
The tip credit carries the strictest rules. Employers taking the credit must inform employees, make up any shortfall between tips and minimum wage, and follow the rules for tip pooling and for time spent on non-tipped duties. Sloppy tip credit administration is one of the most commonly cited wage violations in the restaurant and service sector.
| Requirement | The rule | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pay frequency — FLSA-exempt employees | At least once a month | Tex. Labor Code ch. 61. |
| Pay frequency — everyone else | At least twice a month | Semi-monthly periods must contain as nearly as possible an equal number of days. |
| No designated paydays | Defaults to the 1st and the 15th | The employer loses the choice by failing to make one. |
| Posting | Payday notices must be posted where easily seen | A cheap, commonly missed requirement. |
| Final pay — discharged, laid off, or fired | Within six calendar days | Calendar days, not business days. |
| Final pay — quit, resigned, or retired | Next regularly scheduled payday | The separation type changes the deadline. |
| Unused PTO, vacation, or severance | Owed only if a written policy or agreement provides it | Texas creates no standalone entitlement. |
| Wage claim deadline | 180 days from the date wages were due | TWC uses the date the claim is received. |
Deductions and unpaid time are how employers fall below it
Compensable time is broader than scheduled time. Mandatory meetings, opening and closing duties, required training, and short breaks all count as hours worked. Underpaying minimum wage rarely happens through the stated rate; it happens through time that was never recorded.
Salaried does not mean exempt from these rules. A salaried employee who does not meet an overtime exemption is still owed minimum wage and overtime based on actual hours. Several pages in this library cover classification in more depth.
| Basis for the deduction | Permitted? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Court order (child support, garnishment) | Yes | Withholding is mandatory once the order is received. |
| Required by state or federal law (IRS withholding, FICA) | Yes | No authorisation needed. |
| Written authorisation from the employee | Yes, for a lawful purpose | The authorisation may not be too general or too broad. |
| Repayment of a loan or advance | Only with written authorisation | An oral agreement to repay is not sufficient. |
| Cash shortages, breakage, or till discrepancies | Only with written authorisation | And never below minimum wage or into overtime pay. |
| Withholding final pay until company property is returned | No | Not permitted without written authorisation, a court order, or statutory authority. Recover the property by other means. |
Practices that quietly breach the floor
Minimum wage exposure hides in the edges of timekeeping and deductions. Watch for these.
- Deductions or required purchases that drop low-wage employees below $7.25
- Tip credit taken without required employee notice
- Tip pools that include managers or non-tipped roles
- Unpaid opening, closing, meeting, or training time
- Automatic break deductions applied to interrupted breaks
Test effective hourly pay, not the stated rate
For your lowest-paid roles, run one honest calculation: total actual hours in a workweek against total pay after deductions. If the effective rate approaches the floor, tighten the practices before an auditor does the same math.
If you take a tip credit, confirm the written notice, the shortfall makeup process, and the pool composition. Those three items decide most tip cases.
| Situation | Compensable? | The controlling test |
|---|---|---|
| Work not requested but suffered or permitted | Yes | “The reason is immaterial.” Authorisation is a discipline question, not a pay question. |
| Rest breaks of about 20 minutes or less | Yes | Short breaks are always counted as hours worked. |
| Bona fide meal period of 30 minutes or more | No, if fully relieved | Not relieved if the employee performs any duty, active or inactive, while eating. |
| Waiting time | Depends | Engaged to wait is work; waiting to be engaged is not. |
| On call at the employer’s premises | Yes | Presence is the trigger. |
| On call at home or reachable by phone | Usually no | Additional constraints on the employee’s freedom can make it compensable. |
| Training, lectures and meetings | Yes, unless all four apply | Outside normal hours, voluntary, not job related, and no other work performed concurrently. |
| On duty 24 hours or more | Sleep may be excluded | Up to 8 hours, by agreement, with adequate facilities; no exclusion unless at least 5 hours’ sleep is taken. |
Texas Wage Claim Exposure Checker
Tests your practices against the Texas Payday Law before a claim tests them for you.
When effective pay approaches the floor
Get help if you discover systematic unpaid time or a broken tip credit, because voluntary correction handled well is far cheaper than a Department of Labor investigation handled late.
A focused wage and hour review covering minimum wage, overtime, and classifications gives a small employer more protection per dollar than almost any other compliance spend.
Get a Straight Answer for Your Situation
General rules only go so far. If this question is live in your organization right now, talk it through with a senior HR consultant before you act. One conversation now costs less than one claim later.
Contact UsThis page provides general HR information for employers and is not legal advice. For legal interpretation or representation, consult qualified employment counsel.