Pay Stub Requirements in Texas
At a glance
| Governing law and coverage | Tex. Lab. Code §§ 62.003, 62.151. Chapter 62 statement duty does not apply to a person covered by the FLSA |
|---|---|
| Must provide a statement and when | For Chapter 62-covered employee: signed written earnings statement at end of each pay period; form chosen by employer (§ 62.003(a), (c)) |
| Pay period, employer, and employee identification | Covers the pay period but no pay-period dates required; employee name required; signed by employer/agent, but no separate employer name/address, employee number, or SSN field (§ 62.003) |
| Gross earnings, hours, rates, and pay basis | Rate of pay; total pay earned; hours if hourly or units produced if piece-rate. No general multiple-rate, overtime-line, salary-basis, or commission-breakdown field stated (§ 62.003(b)) |
| Deductions, net pay, allowances, and other required items | Each deduction and its purpose; net pay. If meal/lodging cost is credited under § 62.053, it must be separately stated and identified |
| Electronic delivery, consent, printing, and storage | Employer chooses the form; TWC says statement may be written or electronic. No employee-consent, opt-out, print, or storage condition stated in the cited Texas rule |
| Employee copy access and employer retention | No current/former-employee copy-request right, response deadline, copy fee, or statement-retention period stated in § 62.003 |
| Enforcement, damages, penalties, and deadlines | No § 62.003-specific damages, penalty, fees, cure, or claim deadline stated in Chapter 62; § 62.201's civil-liability list omits § 62.003 |
Requirements one by one
Coverage comes before the field list
Labor Code § 62.151 says Chapter 62 does not apply to a person covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Texas Workforce Commission makes the consequence explicit: pay receipts or check stubs are not required by § 62.003 for those FLSA-covered employees.
For a worker who remains covered by the Texas Minimum Wage Act, § 62.003(a) requires the employer to give a written earnings statement at the end of each pay period. The state rule is therefore real but much narrower than a claim that every Texas employee must receive a pay stub.
The Texas list is compact and pay-method specific
Labor Code § 62.003(b) requires the employer or its agent to sign the statement. The statement then shows the employee's name, rate of pay, total pay earned, each deduction and its purpose, net pay, and either hours worked for hourly pay or units produced for piece-rate pay.
The statute says the statement covers the pay period, but it does not list inclusive start and end dates as fields. It likewise does not list an employer name or address, an employee identification number, Social Security digits, multiple hourly rates, or a separate overtime line.
A meal or lodging credit adds a disclosure
When an employer uses the meal-or-lodging treatment in Labor Code § 62.053, the cost must be “separately stated and identified” in the § 62.003 earnings statement. That is a limited addition tied to the credit, not a universal allowance field for every statement.
Electronic form is allowed without a stated consent formula
Labor Code § 62.003(c) says the employer may determine the form of the earnings statement. The Texas Workforce Commission's Delivery of Wages guidance states that the statement “may be in either written or electronic form.” Neither cited source states an employee-consent, paper-opt-out, printing, or storage condition for the statement itself.
Chapter 62 does not attach its civil penalty to the statement section
Labor Code § 62.201 creates unpaid-wage and liquidated-damages liability for violations of §§ 62.051-.054 or Subchapter C. It does not list § 62.003. The cited chapter also states no separate damages amount, administrative fine, attorney-fee provision, cure rule, or claim deadline for a missing or inaccurate earnings statement itself.
What trips people up
The FLSA exclusion is part of the state statute, not merely an enforcement policy. Before checking the Texas field list, determine whether § 62.151 removes the employee from Chapter 62 altogether.
A required signature is not the same as a required employer-identification field. Section 62.003(b) requires the employer or agent to sign, but its content list names the employee and does not separately require the employer's printed name or address.
The deduction line must state purpose. A single unexplained subtraction does not answer the words “any deduction ... and the purpose of the deduction” in § 62.003(b).
Common questions
Does every Texas employee have a state-law right to a pay stub?
No. Section 62.151 excludes a person covered by the FLSA from Chapter 62. The state earnings-statement duty applies to the employees who remain within the Texas Minimum Wage Act.
Must the statement list pay-period start and end dates?
Section 62.003(a) says the statement covers the pay period, but subsection (b) does not include the period's dates in its field list.
Can a Texas earnings statement be electronic?
Yes under the cited Texas Workforce Commission guidance. The agency says the statement may be written or electronic, consistent with § 62.003(c)'s rule that the employer may determine its form.
Does § 62.003 give a former employee a right to request old statements?
The section contains no current- or former-employee inspection route, copy deadline, reproduction-cost rule, or statement-retention period. Separate federal or other recordkeeping duties are outside this state statement rule.
Statutes and sources
- Tex. Lab. Code § 62.003. End-of-pay-period duty, signature, required fields, and employer-chosen form. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Tex. Lab. Code § 62.053. Separate identification of credited meal and lodging costs. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Tex. Lab. Code § 62.151. FLSA-covered-person exclusion. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Texas Workforce Commission, Delivery of Wages. Official coverage and electronic-form guidance. Agency guidance (accessed July 13, 2026).
- Tex. Lab. Code § 62.201. Chapter 62 civil-liability list, which omits § 62.003. Official text (accessed July 13, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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