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You quit in Texas — when is your final paycheck due?
Employers often tell departing employees that quitting forfeits the last paycheck, or that pay will arrive "when payroll gets to it". Neither is the law in Texas.
If you quit or resign, final pay is due on the next regularly scheduled payday after your last day. If you gave notice, the employer may end your employment immediately and does not owe wages for the notice period.
- Statute
- Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014 (Texas Payday Law)
- If fired
- Final pay is due within six (6) calendar days of the last day of work (Texas Payday Law, Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014). If the sixth day falls on a day the business is normally closed, payment is due the next regular workday.
- If you resigned
- If you quit or resign, final pay is due on the next regularly scheduled payday after your last day. If you gave notice, the employer may end your employment immediately and does not owe wages for the notice period.
- Late-pay penalty
- The Texas Payday Law does not add a waiting-time penalty that is payable to the employee. The remedy is a wage claim filed with the Texas Workforce Commission, which can order the employer to pay the wages found due and can penalise the employer administratively.
- PTO
- Unused vacation, holiday, sick leave and severance are owed only if the employer's written policy or agreement provides for them (TWC guidance).
- Small claims limit
- $20,000 for an individual
- Last verified
- 2026-11-03 two sources agree
What to put in the file before you write anything
- Your written resignation and the date it was delivered — email timestamps are enough, and the delivery date is what starts the clock.
- Whether you gave notice, and how much: some states shorten or lengthen the deadline based on notice, and the letter has to state it accurately.
- Your final timesheet or shift records for the last pay period, including any hours worked after you announced you were leaving.
- Any policy the employer says forfeits pay, PTO or commissions. Ask for it in writing — that request is itself part of the record.
What the letter does that a phone call cannot
A demand letter fixes three things at once: the amount, the date each item was due, and the date the employer was on notice.
Every forum that can help you — the Texas Workforce Commission — Labor Law Section, a small claims judge — starts from those three facts. The letter is
built from Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014 (Texas Payday Law) and your own figures, so the deadline it states is the one that applies to your separation, not a
generic thirty days.
If the amount fits inside $20,000, small claims court is usually faster than an agency queue; if it does
not, the agency route and a demand first is the cheaper path.
Questions
Does giving notice change my final pay date in Texas?
If you quit or resign, final pay is due on the next regularly scheduled payday after your last day. If you gave notice, the employer may end your employment immediately and does not owe wages for the notice period.
Can my employer hold my last check until I return equipment in Texas?
Not lawfully as a condition of wages. Deductions and offsets are limited, and holding earned wages to force the return of property is the kind of self-help that turns a wage claim into a penalty claim.
Other situations in Texas
being fired · a layoff · unused PTO · unpaid commissions · all Texas rules
Reviewed 2026-11-03 against the sources listed on the Texas page.
This is a self-help document tool, not legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.