How Long Does an Employer Have to Pay After Termination in Texas?

In Texas, an employer that fires or lays you off must pay all final wages within six calendar days of your last day of work. If you quit or resign, the deadline is your next regularly scheduled payday. Those two timelines answer the question of how long an employer has to pay after termination in Texas, and both come from the Texas Payday Law in Chapter 61 of the Labor Code, enforced by the Texas Workforce Commission.¹

Six Calendar Days After a Firing or Layoff

If your employer ended the job, the clock is short. Final wages are due within six calendar days of your last day.² The law counts calendar days, so weekends and holidays do not pause the count.¹

Start counting the day after your employment ended. If your last day was a Tuesday, Wednesday is day one and the following Monday is day six. Payment must reach you by that Monday.

The reason for the involuntary trigger does not change the deadline. Mass layoff, firing for cause, termination during a probationary period — the same six calendar days apply.

Next Payday After You Quit

If you left voluntarily, the deadline is more relaxed. Your former employer owes you final wages on the next regularly scheduled payday after your resignation takes effect.¹ If your company pays on the 1st and 15th and you quit on June 5th, your final check is due June 15th. Quit on June 16th, and the deadline is July 1st.

“Next regularly scheduled payday” is still a hard deadline. It gives the employer room to run your final pay through the normal payroll cycle rather than issuing a special off-cycle check, but it is not a suggestion.

What the Final Check Has to Include

Your final paycheck must cover every regular wage earned through your last day, at your agreed-upon pay rate, plus any overtime you worked but have not yet been paid for. Nothing in the law lets an employer shave the check because the departure was sudden or unpleasant.

Other kinds of pay are conditional. Under Texas law, “wages” includes vacation pay, holiday pay, sick leave pay, parental leave pay, and severance pay only if your employer committed to paying those amounts in a written policy or written agreement.¹ If the handbook says unused PTO gets paid out at separation, that is enforceable. If nothing in writing addresses accrued PTO, the employer has no obligation to pay it out.²

Commissions and bonuses work the same way. If a written agreement or company policy establishes that you have earned them, they count as wages. Check your offer letter or commission plan before you assume anything will appear on the final check.

What Your Employer Cannot Deduct

Texas law limits what comes out of your final paycheck. An employer can withhold wages only when ordered to do so by a court, when authorized by state or federal law (tax withholding is the common example), or when you have given specific written permission.¹

This is where employers most often step over the line. If you left while still holding a company laptop, uniform, or set of keys, the employer cannot withhold your final paycheck to force you to return the property.² Without a court order, a statute authorizing the deduction, or your written authorization, the money is still yours. The employer has to pursue the property separately.

Federal law adds another layer. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, deductions for items that primarily benefit the employer (uniforms, tools, damage to property) cannot cut your pay below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for any workweek.³ If you were already earning minimum wage, no deduction for employer-benefit items is allowed at all.

The 180-Day Deadline to File a Claim

If your employer misses the payment deadline, you have 180 days from the date the wages were originally due to file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission.² Miss it and the TWC will not accept your claim. This is the single most important date in the process, and it is easy to blow through while you go back and forth with a former employer who keeps promising the check is coming.

The clock starts on the date the wages should have been paid, not the date you were terminated. For a fired employee, that is six calendar days after your last day. For someone who quit, it is the first regularly scheduled payday after resignation. Write the deadline down.

How to File a Wage Claim With the TWC

The TWC recommends trying to resolve the problem with your employer first, since many missed payments come from ordinary payroll errors.² Do not let those conversations push you past 180 days. If the employer is not cooperating, file.

Claims go through the TWC’s online portal, or by mail or fax with a paper form.² You will need:

Your full name, address, and phone number.
The employer’s legal name, address, and contact information.
Your dates of employment, rate of pay, the total you believe you are owed, and how you arrived at that figure.
Supporting documents: pay stubs, your employment contract, the company’s policy handbook, and any emails or letters about the unpaid wages.

Specific documentation makes a stronger claim. Attach records showing your hours, your rate, and the gap between what you were paid and what you earned. Filing with the TWC costs nothing, does not require a lawyer, and runs on a structured investigation process. You can also go directly to court instead if you prefer.⁴

What Happens After You File

The TWC sends your former employer a copy of the claim and gives them 14 calendar days to respond.⁵ An investigator reviews both sides and may ask for more information, then issues a Preliminary Wage Determination Order stating whether wages are owed and how much.²

Either side has 21 calendar days from the date the order was mailed to file a written appeal.⁶ Appeals go to a Wage Claim Appeal Tribunal, and the first hearing is usually by telephone, with both sides presenting testimony, witnesses, and documents. If nobody appeals within the 21 days, the Preliminary Wage Determination Order becomes the final decision of the commission.⁵

A final, unappealed order automatically creates a lien on the employer’s property. From there the commission can issue a notice of assessment, sue in Travis County district court, or send delinquency notices to third parties holding the employer’s assets — including banks — and levy those assets to collect.⁷ Intentional wage theft can also be prosecuted as a third-degree felony when an employer deliberately refuses to pay after a demand, with each unpaid pay period counting as a separate offense.⁸

Retaliation Is Illegal

You do not have to weigh the risk of a bad reference against filing. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer cannot fire, demote, or otherwise punish any employee for filing a wage complaint, cooperating in an investigation, or testifying about wage violations.⁹ The protection applies whether your complaint was written or verbal, and it covers retaliation by a former employer, not just a current one.

If retaliation happens, you can file a separate complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or bring a private lawsuit. Remedies include reinstatement, back pay, and liquidated damages equal to the back pay amount.⁹

Severance Is a Separate Question

Severance pay is not required under Texas law. It becomes enforceable only if a written agreement or written company policy promises it.¹ When severance is offered, it usually comes with a release agreement that waives your right to sue.

If you are 40 or older, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act requires at least 21 days to consider a severance offer that asks you to waive age discrimination claims, plus a seven-day period after signing to revoke your signature. Neither period can be shortened or waived. For group layoffs, the consideration period extends to 45 days.¹⁰

Do not confuse severance with final wages. Earned wages are due within the Payday Law deadlines whether or not you sign a severance agreement. An employer that holds your regular final paycheck hostage until you sign a release is violating the Payday Law. Those are two separate obligations.

1
Texas Workforce Commission. Chapter 61, Labor Code – Payment of Wages
2
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Payday Law – Wage Claim
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 16 – Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities Under the FLSA
4
Texas Workforce Commission. Chapter 821 Texas Payday Rules
5
Texas Workforce Commission. Wage Claim and Appeal Process in Texas
6
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Payday Wage Claim Appeals
7
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Chapter 61 – Payment of Wages
8
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code 61.019 – Failure to Pay Wages
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Understanding Waivers of Discrimination Claims in Employee Severance Agreements