Texas Fair Labor Standards Act: Overtime, Exemptions, Wage Claims

The Fair Labor Standards Act is the federal wage law that sets the floor for pay in Texas: a $7.25 hourly minimum, time-and-a-half overtime after 40 hours in a workweek, restrictions on child labor, and the right to sue (or file a government claim) when an employer underpays. Texas adopts the federal minimum wage by statute and layers on its own Payday Law for when wages must actually be delivered, but the substantive pay rules you can enforce come from the FLSA.¹

The Minimum Wage in Texas

Every covered Texas employer must pay at least $7.25 per hour, the federal rate since 2009. No Texas city or county can set a higher local minimum, so the number is the same whether you work in Houston, El Paso, or a small town.¹ If Congress raises the federal minimum, the Texas minimum rises with it automatically.

If You Earn Tips

Tipped employees can be paid a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, with the employer taking a tip credit of up to $5.12 to reach $7.25. The arithmetic has to actually work out each pay period. If your tips plus the $2.13 base don’t reach $7.25 per hour for the hours worked, your employer owes you the difference.² An employer who keeps tips or fails to top up a short week is violating the law.

Subminimum Wage Certificates

Section 14(c) of the FLSA lets certain employers pay less than $7.25 to workers whose productive capacity is reduced by a physical or mental disability, but only if the employer first obtains a special certificate from the Wage and Hour Division.³ Without that certificate on file, the standard minimum applies.

Overtime After 40 Hours

If you’re a covered, non-exempt employee, every hour over 40 in a single workweek must be paid at one and one-half times your regular rate.⁴ A workweek is a fixed, recurring block of 168 hours (seven consecutive 24-hour periods). It doesn’t have to match the calendar week, but once your employer sets it, they can’t average your hours across two weeks to avoid paying overtime.⁵

The “regular rate” is often higher than your posted hourly wage, and that’s where underpayment hides. It includes base pay plus non-discretionary bonuses and commissions earned that week. The formula is total compensation for the workweek divided by total hours worked. Picture someone paid $15 an hour who earns a $40 production bonus and works 50 hours: the regular rate rises above $15, and so does the overtime premium on those 10 extra hours. Employers who leave bonuses and commissions out of the overtime calculation shortchange workers every pay period.

Who Is Exempt From Overtime

Some workers are completely outside the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime rules under the executive, administrative, professional, or outside sales exemptions. Qualifying takes two things: a qualifying salary and qualifying duties. Your job title is not one of them.

The Salary Threshold

To be exempt, you generally must earn a guaranteed salary of at least $684 per week (about $35,568 per year) that isn’t docked for the quality or quantity of your work. The Department of Labor tried in 2024 to raise that figure in stages to $844 and then $1,128 per week, but a federal court in Texas vacated the rule in November 2024. The 2019 threshold of $684 per week is what the DOL is enforcing now.⁶

The Duties That Actually Qualify

Clearing the salary bar isn’t enough. The exemption turns on what you actually do week to week.

Executive: your primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, and you supervise at least two full-time employees (or the equivalent).
Administrative: you perform office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and you regularly exercise independent judgment on significant matters.
Professional: your work requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning, typically acquired through a prolonged specialized education.
Outside sales: your primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders, and you regularly work away from the employer’s place of business.

Workers earning at least $107,432 per year face a lighter duties test. They qualify as highly compensated employees if they customarily and regularly perform at least one exempt duty, as long as the $684 weekly salary basis is also met.⁶

Employee or Independent Contractor

Every protection in this article depends on one question: are you an employee or an independent contractor? Independent contractors get none of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime, or child labor coverage, and misclassification is one of the most common wage violations in Texas.

The DOL applies an “economic reality” test that asks whether you are genuinely in business for yourself or economically dependent on the company you work for. Two factors carry the most weight: how much control the employer exercises over how you do the job, and whether you have a real opportunity for profit or loss based on your own initiative and investment. Other factors include the skill the work requires, how permanent the arrangement is, and whether the work is integral to the employer’s business.⁷ What the contract calls you doesn’t decide it; what actually happens on the job does.

This area is unsettled. The DOL’s 2024 independent contractor rule still governs private lawsuits, but the Department proposed rescinding it in February 2026 and reverting to a framework similar to 2021.⁸ The economic reality factors above remain the right lens either way.

Child Labor Rules

Both the federal FLSA and Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 regulate when minors can work. When they conflict, the stricter rule controls.⁹

For 14- and 15-year-olds, Texas allows up to eight hours a day and 48 hours a week.¹⁰ Federal law is tighter during school: no more than three hours on a school day and 18 hours during a school week.¹¹ Because the federal caps are lower during school sessions, they apply then. In the summer and other out-of-school periods, the Texas limits take over.

Workers under 18 are barred from a long list of hazardous occupations: explosives, mining, logging, roofing, demolition, exposure to radioactive materials, and operating power-driven woodworking, metalworking, meat processing, and bakery machinery. Narrow apprenticeship and student-learner exceptions exist for some jobs at ages 16 and 17, but the default is a flat ban.¹²

What You Can Recover for Unpaid Wages

If an employer fails to pay the required minimum wage or overtime, federal law under 29 USC 216(b) lets you recover the unpaid amount plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. The underpayment effectively doubles. The court must also award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to a prevailing employee.¹³ An employer can escape the liquidated damages piece only by proving it acted in good faith with reasonable grounds to believe its pay practices were lawful, a difficult showing.¹⁴

You Cannot Be Fired for Complaining

FLSA Section 15(a)(3) makes it illegal for an employer to fire, demote, cut hours, or otherwise punish you for raising a pay concern, filing a wage complaint, or cooperating with an investigation. The protection applies whether your complaint is verbal or written, and most courts hold that complaints made internally to your employer, not just those filed with the government, are covered.¹⁵ Former employees can bring retaliation claims too. Remedies include reinstatement, back pay, and liquidated damages equal to lost wages.¹³

How to File a Wage Claim in Texas

A Texas worker who hasn’t been paid properly has two paths: a state wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission under the Payday Law, or a federal FLSA claim. The TWC route is more accessible and doesn’t require a lawyer.

Watch the Deadlines

A TWC wage claim must be filed within 180 days of the date the wages were due. Miss that window and the TWC will not accept the claim. A federal FLSA claim has a longer statute of limitations: two years from the violation, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁶ The 180-day state deadline is the one that catches people off guard.

Timing of Your Final Paycheck

The Payday Law also controls when a departing employee must be paid. If you are fired, laid off, or discharged, your employer must pay all remaining wages within six calendar days. If you quit voluntarily, your final paycheck is due on the next regularly scheduled payday. The law covers wages, commissions, bonuses promised by agreement, and certain employer-required fringe benefits.¹⁷

What to Gather Before You File

A TWC claim asks you to identify the employer (business name, address, phone, work location), the specific dates you worked without being paid, and a breakdown of the unpaid amount by type (regular wages, overtime, commissions). You sign a declaration that your information is true.¹⁷ Pull together pay stubs, time cards, and any personal work logs before you file. Those records drive the investigation.

How to Submit

The TWC’s online wage claim portal is the fastest option and confirms receipt immediately. A paper form (WH-1) is also available for mail or fax submission.¹⁸ After the TWC receives your claim, it contacts the employer, assigns an investigator, and issues a Preliminary Wage Determination Order. Either side has 21 calendar days from the mailing date to appeal that order in writing to the Wage Claim Appeal Tribunal.¹⁹

1
State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Section 62.051 – Minimum Wage
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Tips
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Subminimum Wage
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 13 – Employment Relationship Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
U.S. Department of Labor. US Department of Labor Proposes Rule Clarifying Employee Classification
9
Texas Workforce Commission. Wage and Hour Program
10
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Labor Code Chapter 51 – Employment of Children
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act
12
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Child Labor Law
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 260 – Liquidated Damages
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations
17
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Payday Law – Wage Claim
18
Texas Workforce Commission. Online Wage Claim
19
Texas Workforce Commission. Texas Payday Wage Claim Appeals