Primary sources
- Tex. Lab. Code 61.014 (Texas Payday Law). Accessed 1 July 2026.
United States · Texas · Final pay child
Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware
When is a final paycheck due in Texas?
Texas is one of the few states that counts the deadline in calendar days rather than business days or paydays. Six days includes the weekend, which is where employers lose two of them.
· Texas, United States guide
Answer · cite this
In Texas a discharged employee must be paid within six calendar days of the discharge, under the Texas Payday Law (Tex. Lab. Code 61.014). An employee who resigns is paid on the next regular payday.
The split matters more here than in most states, because the two routes are not just different lengths, they are different kinds of deadline. One is a fixed countdown; the other is tied to your own pay schedule.
Because the six days are calendar days, a Thursday discharge leaves you with the following Wednesday, and the weekend is gone whether or not your payroll team works it.
When must a final paycheck be paid after firing someone in Texas?
Within six calendar days of the discharge, under the Texas Payday Law (Tex. Lab. Code 61.014).
Six calendar days is a shorter window than it sounds. Discharge someone on a Thursday and the clock expires the following Wednesday, with a weekend consuming a third of the time available. A fortnightly payroll cycle will frequently miss it.
The Texas Workforce Commission administers wage claims under this law, and the six-day rule is the measure it applies. It does not matter whether the delay was deliberate or administrative.
The duty to pay is separate from whether the termination itself was lawful. That is covered on the Texas termination and at-will page.
What if the employee resigns instead?
The next regular payday. The six-day countdown applies only to discharges.
So in Texas the employer-initiated exit is the urgent one and the employee-initiated exit is the routine one. That is the opposite of the intuition most people bring to it, and it is a useful shape to remember: the party who ended the relationship determines which clock runs.
If someone resigns the day after a payday, their final pay can legitimately sit until the following one.
How does Texas compare with the states around it?
Texas is markedly more generous than the immediate-payment states and markedly tighter than its next-payday neighbours.
| State | If fired | If employee quits | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | Within 6 calendar days of discharge | Next regular payday | Tex. Lab. Code 61.014 (Texas Payday Law) |
| Oklahoma | Next regular payday | Next regular payday | Okla. Stat. tit. 40, 165.3 |
| Louisiana | Next payday or within 15 days, whichever is earlier | Next payday or within 15 days, whichever is earlier | La. R.S. 23:631 |
| Arkansas | Within 7 days of discharge if the employee demands payment, otherwise next regular payday | Next regular payday | Ark. Code 11-4-405 |
| California | Immediately | Within 72 hours, or immediately if 72 hours notice given | Cal. Labor Code 201, 202 |
The full 50-state picture is on the final paycheck laws by state table.
Texas final pay, in short
- Deadline if fired
- Within 6 calendar days of discharge
- Deadline if the employee quits
- Next regular payday
- Governing statute
- Tex. Lab. Code 61.014 (Texas Payday Law)
- Source
- Primary source
- Last verified
How much of this do you still handle if you hire in Texas through an EOR?
None of it. The six-day countdown, the payment and the wage records the Texas Workforce Commission would ask for sit with the employer of record.
What costs more than the deadline is everything around it:
- onboarding and offboarding fees
- termination charges
- contracts that lock you in
- FX markups on every pay run
- a platform built for a company ten times your size
- a ticket queue where you never learn who to contact
The industry profits from keeping that hidden. Teamed calls it the Hidden Global Employment Tax, and Teamed's whole model exists to remove it.
Teamed is the legal employer for your Texas hire. From $599 per employee per month, with zero FX markup. $0 setup, $0 exit, and you can cancel any month. You get a designated person and real HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, not a ticket.
Teamed's employer cost calculator covers 94 countries and all 50 US states.
Questions people ask about Texas final pay
When is a final paycheck due in Texas if someone is fired?
Within six calendar days of the discharge, under the Texas Payday Law (Tex. Lab. Code 61.014).
When is it due if the employee quits?
The next regular payday. The six-day countdown applies only to discharges.
Are the six days in the Texas Payday Law business days or calendar days?
Calendar days. Tex. Lab. Code 61.014 counts six calendar days from the discharge, so weekends and public holidays are inside the window rather than extending it. A Thursday discharge expires the following Wednesday.
A note from Tom Price-Daniel
Six days sounds comfortable until you count a weekend inside it.
Texas does, and a fortnightly payroll run will miss it more often than it makes it.
Treat a discharge here as a payment you make this week, not next cycle.
Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed
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