Texas Payday Law

• The Texas Payday Law is silent as to the number of days or months that employers must keep an employee's paycheck active after paying her. When employers pay their employees in accordance with the Texas Payday Law, they may have further obligations to honor their employees' paychecks. Since the Texas Payday Law uses a 180-day statute of limitations period, employers must keep their paychecks active for up to 180 days based on the statute-of-limitations period. After 180 days, employers can consider their unclaimed paychecks as abandoned property and send them to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The comptroller treats unclaimed checks as abandoned property.
  
  

Payday Requirements

• The Texas Payday Law requires employers to post their paydays in conspicuous workplace areas and to pay their employees on their established paydays. The Payday Law also addresses the methods that employers must use to pay their employees and the penalties for failure to pay them in a timely manner. Employers who fail to designate their paydays in advance are required to pay their employees on the first and 15th day of each month.
  
  

Frequency of Paydays

• When employers terminate their employees, the Payday Law requires employers to pay their terminated employees within six days after their termination date. When employees voluntarily sever their employment relationships, their employers must pay them by their next established payday. Texas law requires employers to pay their hourly employees at least twice per month, with an equal number of days between paydays. Employers may pay some designated salaried professional employees once per month.
  
  

Penalties

• Employers who fail to pay their employees in accordance with the Texas Payday Law face third-degree felony convictions punishable by imprisonment or civil or criminal fines. The Texas Workforce Commission can also require employers to post payment bonds to ensure timely payment of their employees. Employees can file wage claims with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days of their wages' becoming payable, and they may receive payment of damages from employers who fail to pay them on their designated paydays.