Texas Paycheck Calculator

How Texas paychecks work

Texas is one of the nine states with no state income tax — and unlike some of them, it has no payroll-side substitutes either (no SDI, no local wage taxes). What leaves a Texas paycheck is purely federal:

Worked example

What Texas taxes instead

• Property taxes are among the nation’s highest (averaging ~1.6–1.8% of home value) — the state’s main revenue engine along with sales tax (6.25% state + up to 2% local).
• For renters and remote workers, the paycheck advantage is real and immediate; for homeowners, part of it returns through the property tax bill.
• No city or county wage taxes anywhere in Texas — unlike Pennsylvania or Ohio, the paycheck math is identical statewide.

Moving-to-Texas math

Because the difference vs. a high-tax state is a fixed percentage of income, it scales: at $60k the Texas advantage over California is ~$4,400/year; at $150k it grows to roughly $11,000–$13,000/year. Run your number above, then compare with the California or New York page.

Texas wage rules that shape your paycheck

No income tax does not mean no wage law. Texas’s Payday Law (Labor Code chapter 61) and Minimum Wage Act (chapter 62) are short, but they decide when you are paid, what can be taken out, and what happens when a check does not arrive. Five rules cover the ground a Texas paystub touches.

1. The minimum wage is the federal one — and no city can raise it

Texas does not set its own number. Section 62.051 requires employers to pay “the federal minimum wage under Section 6” of the FLSA, so the Texas rate is $7.25 and moves only if Congress moves it. Section 62.0515 then closes the local route: the state minimum “supersedes a wage established in an ordinance, order, or charter provision governing wages in private employment,” with an exception only for wages under public contracts. Austin, Dallas and Houston cannot set a higher private-sector floor.

Tipped workers are handled the same way: § 62.052 adopts the FLSA section 3(m) tip-credit rules, so the Texas cash wage is the federal $2.13 an hour, with tips required to bring the total to at least $7.25.

2. How often you must be paid depends on your overtime status

Section 61.011 ties pay frequency to the FLSA. An employee who is exempt from federal overtime must be paid “at least once a month”; everyone else must be paid “at least twice a month,” and when pay is twice monthly the periods must be as equal in length as possible. An employer that never designates paydays gets them by default under § 61.012: the 1st and 15th of each month. Paydays must also be posted in a conspicuous place at work. Biweekly and weekly schedules satisfy the twice-a-month floor; a monthly schedule is lawful only for exempt staff.

3. Final pay: six days if fired, next payday if you quit

Section 61.014 sets two clocks. A discharged employee must be paid in full “not later than the sixth day after the date the employee is discharged.” An employee who leaves any other way is paid by “the next regularly scheduled payday.” Commissions and bonuses are handled separately by § 61.015: they are due according to the terms of your agreement or collective bargaining agreement, and once due must be paid as promptly as other wages.

4. What can come out of your check — and what happens if it doesn’t arrive

Section 61.018 allows an employer to withhold or divert wages only on three bases: a court order, authorization by state or federal law (tax withholding, for instance), or the employee’s written authorization for a lawful purpose. A uniform charge or a cash-shortage deduction you never signed for fails that test.

If wages go unpaid, a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission must be filed “not later than the 180th day” after the wages became due, and § 61.051 makes that deadline jurisdictional: a late claim cannot be heard at all, however strong. At the far end, § 61.019 makes it a third-degree felony for an employer who intends to avoid paying wages to fail to pay after demand, and each pay period counts as a separate offense.

5. No paid sick leave, and no city may require one

Texas has no paid-sick-leave law, and since September 1, 2023 local governments cannot fill the gap. Section 1.005, added by H.B. 2127, bars a city or county from adopting or enforcing any rule in a field the Labor Code occupies, and names that field broadly: “employment leave, hiring practices, breaks, employment benefits, scheduling practices.” Any leave or break you receive in Texas comes from your employer’s policy, your contract or federal law, not from a city ordinance.

That is why the calculator above treats Texas the same everywhere in the state: a paycheck in El Paso and one in Houston differ only by what the employer offers.

How this estimate is calculated

• Federal income tax: 2026 IRS brackets with the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100 single / $32,200 married filing jointly), no credits or itemizing.
• FICA: Social Security 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base + Medicare 1.45% (plus 0.9% additional above $200k single / $250k married).
• Pre-tax deductions (401(k), traditional retirement) reduce federal taxable income but not FICA wages.
• Results estimate your annual tax liability spread across paychecks — real per-check withholding depends on your W-4 and settles at tax time.