An unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio workers call usually starts with two dates. The day the employer owed the money, and the day the complaint window shuts.
Texas splits that first date in two. An employer must pay a discharged employee in full “not later than the sixth day after the date the employee is discharged.” An employee who quits waits until the next scheduled payday. Both halves sit in Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014.
“Day” means a calendar day under § 61.001(2). So the discharge deadline runs six calendar days, weekends included. Everything below hangs off those two clocks.
Unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio: clock one, when the employer owes you
Section 61.011 sets pay frequency. An employer pays an employee exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime rules at least monthly. Everyone else gets paid at least twice a month. Twice-monthly pay periods must each run “as nearly as possible” the same number of days.
Section 61.012 handles notice. The employer designates the paydays. It also posts notices of them “in conspicuous places in the workplace.” An employer that designates nothing defaults to the first and the 15th.
Then § 61.014 closes out the job. Six calendar days after a discharge. The next scheduled payday after a resignation. Under § 61.013, an employee who misses a payday may ask for payment on another regular business day.
What counts as wages under the Texas Payday Law
Section 61.001(7) defines wages as compensation owed for labor or services, computed “on a time, task, piece, commission, or other basis.” Commissions and bonuses come due on the terms of the agreement creating them, under § 61.015.
The second half of that definition trips people up. Vacation, holiday, sick leave, parental leave and severance pay count as wages only in one situation. The employer must owe them “under a written agreement with the employer or under a written policy of the employer.” So Texas does not require an accrued-vacation payout at termination. A written policy promising one turns unused vacation into a claim. That written-policy line is where many unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio disputes begin.
Direct deposit without consent, and payroll cards with an opt-out
Section 61.016 lists the permitted forms of payment. United States currency. A written instrument negotiable on demand at full face value. Or an electronic transfer to an account the employee designates, or to a payroll card.
Section 61.017(c) then produces the counterintuitive rule. An employer may elect to pay through a direct deposit plan. It must notify each affected employee in writing at least 60 days beforehand. It must also collect whatever the financial institution requires. The statute asks for notice, not agreement, and supplies no opt-out.
Payroll cards work differently. Under § 61.017(d) the employer gives the same 60 days’ written notice, plus a complete list of the account’s fees. It must also hand the employee a form for requesting an alternate form of payment.
What an employer may deduct
Section 61.018 is short and closed-ended. An employer may not withhold or divert any part of an employee’s wages unless the employer:
- “is ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction”;
- “is authorized to do so by state or federal law”; or
- “has written authorization from the employee to deduct part of the wages for a lawful purpose.”
Read the third ground closely: it takes two things. A signed authorization cannot rescue an unlawful deduction. A lawful purpose cannot rescue an unsigned one.
Unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio: clock two, and why 180 days is jurisdictional
Section 61.051(c) sets the filing deadline. A wage claim “must be filed not later than the 180th day after the date the wages claimed became due for payment.” The same subsection adds that the deadline “is a matter of jurisdiction.”
That word changes everything. A limitations period can be tolled, or waived when an employer fails to raise it. A jurisdictional deadline cannot. Section 61.052(b-1) simply tells the examiner to dismiss a late claim “for lack of jurisdiction.”
Note what the clock measures. It runs from the date the wages became due for payment. It does not run from the termination, or from the day the worker noticed the shortfall. For a discharged worker, that due date is the sixth day. A San Antonio wage claim must also be verified by the employee under § 61.051(b). The Texas Workforce Commission’s wage claim page lists the filing options.
After the claim: the order, the hearing, and Bexar County
Section 61.052 starts the process. A commission examiner analyzes the claim, investigates it if the facts are actionable, and issues a preliminary wage determination order. That order either dismisses the claim or orders payment.
Section 61.054(b) then opens a narrow window. Either party must request a hearing in writing by the 21st day after the examiner mails notice of the order. The hearing follows § 61.058, which borrows the commission’s unemployment-benefit procedures. That section also exempts the hearing from the Administrative Procedure Act.
Judicial review lives at § 61.062. A party who has exhausted administrative remedies must sue within 30 days after the final order is mailed. Venue matters. Section 61.062(d) places the suit “in the county of the claimant’s residence.” For a San Antonio resident, that means a Bexar County district court rather than Travis County. An unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio clients retain files that appeal at home.
Bad faith cuts both ways at this stage. Section 61.053 lets the examiner, an appeal tribunal, or the commission penalize an employer that acted in bad faith in not paying. It also lets them penalize an employee who acted in bad faith in bringing the claim. Either penalty is capped at the lesser of the wages in question or $1,000.
Who the Texas Payday Law leaves out
Three groups fall outside chapter 61 by definition. Section 61.001(3)(B) excludes independent contractors from the word “employee” textually, not by inference. The same definition drops a person related to the employer or the employer’s spouse within the first or second degree, under § 61.001(3)(A). Section 61.003 excludes the United States, this state, and every political subdivision. That sweeps in cities, counties and school districts.
Chapter 61 contains no election-of-remedies provision. But under Igal v. Brightstar Information Technology Group, Inc., 250 S.W.3d 78 (Tex. 2008), res judicata can bar a later suit for the same wages. That happens when a claimant takes the claim to a final commission decision, then skips judicial review. Which route to take is a decision to make before filing, not after.
Unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio: the federal overlay
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009. Texas sets no separate figure. Tex. Lab. Code § 62.051 adopts the federal rate by reference, so the Texas number moves only when Congress moves 29 U.S.C. § 206.
Overtime comes from 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1). Past 40 hours in a workweek, a covered employee earns “not less than one and one-half times the regular rate.” The salary test for the white-collar exemptions reads $684 per week under 29 C.F.R. § 541.600(a). A separate highly compensated employee threshold sits at $107,432 a year under § 541.601(a)(1).
The federal clock runs longer than the state one. Under 29 U.S.C. § 255(a), a worker has two years to sue, and three if the violation was willful. Section 216(b) adds the teeth. An employer that violates the minimum wage or overtime rules owes the unpaid amount plus “an additional equal amount as liquidated damages,” and the court “shall” award a reasonable attorney’s fee. Employees sue directly in state or federal court, and anyone joining a collective action files written consent.
Unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio: where the filings actually go
Payday Law wage claims go to a state office, not a local one. The commission’s Wage and Hour Department sits at 101 E. 15th St., Rm. 514, Austin, TX 78778-0001. It also takes claims by fax or online. The full text of chapter 61 is online.
Discrimination charges follow a different path. The EEOC keeps a San Antonio Field Office in Legacy Oaks Building A, at 5410 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 200. Charges can start through the EEOC Public Portal. A worker in Texas has 300 days to file an EEOC charge.
The bottom line
Most unpaid wage disputes in Texas are not close calls on the merits. They are calendar failures. The wages came due on a date the worker never wrote down, and 180 days later the commission loses the power to hear the claim at all.
The jurisdictional label is what makes that unforgiving. An employer that sleeps on a limitations defense usually loses it, but nobody can waive jurisdiction into existence. So the first useful hour with an unpaid wages lawyer San Antonio workers hire is arithmetic. Fix the due date, count forward 180 days, and only then argue about what the employer owed.
Frequently asked questions
Not later than the sixth day after the discharge, under Section 61.014, and Section 61.001(2) makes those calendar days, weekends included. A worker who quits is paid on the next scheduled payday instead.
No. Under Section 61.001(7), vacation, holiday, sick leave, parental leave and severance count as wages only where the employer owes them under a written agreement or a written policy. A written policy promising a payout turns unused vacation into a claim.
Section 61.051(c) sets the deadline at 180 days after the wages became due for payment and states that the deadline is a matter of jurisdiction, and Section 61.052(b-1) tells the examiner to dismiss a late claim for lack of jurisdiction. A limitations period can be tolled or waived; a jurisdictional deadline cannot.
Yes. Section 61.017(c) lets an employer elect to pay through a direct deposit plan after notifying each affected employee in writing at least 60 days beforehand, and the statute supplies no opt-out. Payroll cards under Section 61.017(d) take the same 60 days’ notice plus a complete list of the account’s fees and a form for requesting an alternate form of payment.
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This article explains the Texas Payday Law and the federal wage rules that overlay it, and is general information, not legal advice. Wage claim deadlines are strict, and which rules apply depends on how a worker is classified and who the employer is.