Your Rights as an Hourly Employee in Texas | 2024 (2024)

Here’s a comparison table highlighting the key differences between hourly and salaried employees in Texas:

To learn more about Texas labor laws, you can access our informative guides on understandingyour rights as a salaried employee in Texasand discoveringhow to run payroll in Texas.

The minimum wage in Texas currently follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, covering all employees irrespective of industry, employer size, and those who do not qualify for minimum wage exemptions. According to the regulations of the U.S. Department of Labor, individuals who earn more than $20 in tips per month are categorized as tipped employees and receive a base hourly wage of $2.13.

DownloadU.S. Minimum Wage 2024 Posternow.

Nonetheless, it’s essential to note that there are specific groups of employees who might be exempt from the minimum wage requirement, and both federal and state laws have corresponding provisions pertaining to these exemptions. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees who are not subject to the minimum wage comprise of:

• Executives, professionals, and administrative employees earning at least $684 per week.
• Computer employees who earn at least $684 per week or $27.63 per hour.
• Highly compensated employees earning $107,432 per year or more.
• Farm workers.
• Fishing industry workers.
• Seasonal and leisure workers.

DownloadU.S. FLSA Exemption Salary Threshold 2024 Posternow.

In addition to federal exemptions, Texas has its own set of exemptions that employers are obliged to follow. These include exemptions for:

• Employees of religious, educational, charitable, or nonprofit organizations
• Professionals, salespersons, or public officials
• Domestic workers
• Certain youths and students
• Inmates employed during incarceration in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or local jails
• Family members working for a family business (referring to referring to the employer’s brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, child, spouse, parent, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, ward, or person in loco parentis to the employee)
• Employees of amusem*nt and recreational establishments
• Non-agricultural employers not liable for state unemployment contributions
• Individuals employed in dairy farming and livestock production
• Sheltered workshops for individuals with disabilities

Texas based employers are obligated by both federal and state legal standards to compensate employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek by either providing compensatory rest (fixed at a rate of 1.5 hours for every hour worked overtime) or overtime payment (set at an hourly rate of 1.5 times their regular hourly wage).

Given that the standard minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 per hour, the overtime minimum wage in Texas is $10.87 per hour, equating to one and a half times the basic wage rate.

It’s important to bear in mind that Texas primarily follows the regulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Hence, extra pay for working on weekends, holidays, or regular days of rest is not mandated in Texas.

For a variety of reasons, employees take time away from work and are afforded the right to take leave for specific durations of time while having their job status protected. Hourly employees in Texas are primarily regulated by federal laws, state laws, and employer policies with regards to leave entitlements. Below are the key legislations governing such entitlements in Texas:

• The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is an essential legal foundation that regulates leave entitlements for employees in Texas. This federal law entitles employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to attend to specific family and health matters while safeguarding their job status.
• The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is also another federal law that influences leave benefits and mandates only particular types of leaves. Hence, other types of leaves may be implemented by employers as an incentive.

It is crucial for hourly employees in Texas to not only review their employment contracts and employer policies to know their specific rights to time off and absence leaves but also keep abreast with any applicable local ordinances within their particular city or jurisdiction, as these may grant them additional leave protections.

Below are some of the many employment entitlements that hourly employees in Texas are entitled to:

• Minimum Wage: Employees are entitled to receive the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Most employees are covered under both state law and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
• Overtime: Hourly employees are entitled to receive overtime pay, calculated at one and a half times their regular wage, for each hour worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek. For example, if an employee earns $7.25 per hour and completes 50 hours during a specific workweek, they should receive $10.87 per hour for those additional 10 hours.
• Family and Medical leave: Employees are eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year if they have been employed by their current employer for a minimum of 12 months or 1,250 hours within the past 12 months. This leave is covers various employees, including all state employees, public and private elementary or secondary school employees, and workers employed in companies with a workforce of at least 50 individuals. The categories of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act include the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child, the care of an immediate family member with a serious health condition, as well as the employee’s own serious health condition.
• Paid Sick leave: Many hourly workers accumulate a specific amount of paid sick leave annually, which can be utilized to offset lost wages when they take time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), despite the fact that the latter is not compensated.
• Vacation Time: Hourly workers may also accrue paid vacation leave depending on the policies set by their employer. While there are no state laws mandating specific requirements for vacation time, vacation policies are accrual rates that generally rest at the discretion of the employer.
• Paid Maternity/ Paternity leave: Just like salaried employees, hourly workers do not have an assured entitlement to paid maternity or paternity leave. The availability of such paid leave is subject to the employer’s decision and may be outlined in the contract of employment or company policies.
• Unemployment Benefits: Employees who have been dismissed through no fault of their own are entitled to unemployment benefits as administered by the Texas Workforce Commission.

Texas labor law provides an array of entitlements which protects the employment rights of all of its employees, including those of hourly employees, although Texas labor law generally adheres to federal law in many employment aspects. The following rights include:

1. Rights to minimum wage: All employees in Texas are legally entitled to having their employment rights secured pertaining to minimum wage under the FLSA.
2. Other mandatory leave provisions: Employees enjoy designated periods of leave such as jury service leave, volunteer service leave, military leave, and leave as an Organ or Bone Marrow Donor.
3. Violations reporting: The whistleblower laws are state regulations implemented to empower employees to freely report unethical workplace practices or violations of their rights without fear of facing retaliation, such as demotions or employment dismissal, whilst having their employment status safeguarded.
4. Workplace safety: The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is a federal law that obliges employers to provide employees with a safe work environment, protect them from safety hazards and provide safety training.
5. Discrimination and Harassment: The Texas Workforce Commission is the state agency which enforces anti-discrimination laws to protect individuals from workplace discrimination based on religion, sex, race, color, national origin, age and disability.
6. Paid 10-minute breaks: Employees are compensated a 10 minute break for every four hours of work and should receive wages for each workday when their breaks are taken without prior authorization or approval from the employer.

In the aspect of termination, Texas adopts the ‘employment-at-will’ doctrine whereby both employers and employees enjoy the freedom to terminate the employment contract at any time without prior notice and for any reason except an illegal reason which provides an exception to this principle. Wrongful termination occurs when an employer terminates an employee for reasons that are not legally valid, including:

• Sexual orientation
• Military duty
• Veteran status
• Reporting or lodging a complaint about suspected wrongful conduct related to employment discrimination, standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), wages, and other similar issues.
• Race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, age, national origin, or disability
• Jury duty
• Voting
• Union membership

When an employment contract is terminated in Texas, the employer must comply with particular rules with regards to the final payment of wages. The following two prerequisites apply:

• If an employee has been terminated, the employer is obligated to make a final wage payment within 6 calendar days.
• If an employee resigns, the employer must issue the final wage payment no later than the next regularly scheduled payday.