Texas runs on federal rules — simpler on paper, but wage disputes are decided the same way everywhere: by whoever has the better records. CDO's engine is built to California's standard — the strictest in the country — so in Texas it runs with headroom: GPS-verified punches, live break and overtime math on Texas's actual rules, bilingual EN/ES crews, and the minute-level record that decides wage disputes.
Texas follows federal law: overtime at 1.5× only after 40 hours in a week, no required meal or rest breaks for adults, and the $7.25 federal minimum wage. The state adds the Payday Law’s pay-timing rules. With no Texas heat standard, federal OSHA’s General Duty Clause still covers heat illness on the job.
Texas has almost no state wage-and-hour law of its own. Overtime is federal FLSA only — 1.5× the regular rate past 40 hours in a workweek, with no daily overtime and no double time. No Texas law requires meal or rest breaks for adult workers, and there is no state minimum wage above the federal $7.25 floor. There is also no Texas heat-illness standard for outdoor workers; since HB 2127 took effect in September 2023, cities can no longer fill that gap with their own mandatory water-break ordinances.
What Texas does enforce is the Texas Payday Law, which sets strict payment timing — non-exempt employees at least twice a month, exempt employees at least monthly — and gives the Texas Workforce Commission jurisdiction over wage claims. The practical exposure for a Texas contractor is therefore not break penalties but records: off-the-clock work, travel time, regular-rate miscalculation, and misclassification, all of which are decided by whoever can document the day more precisely.
| Rule | Texas | For contrast: California |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime | Weekly only — 1.5× past 40 hrs (federal FLSA) | Daily past 8, double time past 12, 7th-day rules |
| Meal breaks | Not required by state law | Before end of hour 5; second before hour 10 |
| Rest breaks | Not required by state law | Paid 10 min per 4 hours, duty-free |
| Heat rules | No state standard; HB 2127 preempts local water-break rules | Cal/OSHA §3395 — shade, water, cool-downs |
| Minimum wage | $7.25 federal floor — no state minimum, local ones preempted | State rate plus many higher local rates |
Summary as of October 2026 — rules move; verify current requirements with the Texas labor department and qualified counsel. The California column is there for scale, not because it applies to you: it's the regime CDO's engine was built to, which is why Texas's rules run inside it with room to spare.
Texas adds almost nothing on top of the FLSA: overtime is weekly-only past 40 hours, and no state law requires meal or rest breaks for adults. What Texas does enforce is the Texas Payday Law (Labor Code Ch. 61) — non-exempt workers paid at least twice a month, exempt workers at least monthly, with default paydays of the 1st and 15th if the employer never designates any. The Texas Workforce Commission takes the wage claims.
Simple rules don’t mean low stakes — they mean the fight moves to a different question. FLSA claims reach back two years, three if the violation was willful, and the claims that actually get filed against contractors are off-the-clock work, unpaid travel between sites, and regular-rate errors where a bonus wasn’t folded into the overtime rate. Every one of those turns on records. A GPS-verified, minute-level punch trail is what converts “he said, she said” into a closed file.
Heat is the place where Texas moved backwards from a compliance standpoint. HB 2127, effective September 2023 and left in place when the Third Court of Appeals dismissed the cities’ challenge on standing grounds in July 2025, broadly preempts local ordinances in fields covered by state law — which wiped out Austin’s and Dallas’s mandatory construction water-break rules. There is no Texas standard replacing them. What still applies is federal OSHA’s General Duty Clause, plus OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on heat, renewed in April 2026 for five years across 55 high-risk industries. In other words: the mandate went away, the liability didn’t.
Public works change the math again. Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and certified payroll apply on federally funded jobs, and Texas runs its own prevailing-wage statute (Gov’t Code Ch. 2258) for state and local public work. CDO records every punch to the minute with its job and location, so the hours for each public-works job are already separated instead of being reconstructed at the end of the month; job-level pay rates are coming soon.
And the Texas reality on the ground — big crews, long summers, Spanish-speaking workforces — is exactly what CDO’s field app was shaped for: designed for gloved hands in direct sun, bilingual by default, with records stored in both languages permanently.
Texas doesn’t require you to pay out unused vacation or PTO — until you put a policy in writing. Once a written policy or established practice promises a payout, the Texas Workforce Commission treats that promise as an enforceable wage under 40 TAC §821.25 and will order it paid on separation. Contractors regularly write a generous handbook policy, never budget for it, and discover the obligation when a crew turns over.
Wherever the rules land on the strictness scale, the constant is the same: disputes are decided by records. CDO's GPS-verified, minute-level, bilingual punch trail — reviewed by AI, with exceptions surfaced for human judgment — is the record that wins them. See why teams pick CDO
Broad state preemption of local ordinances in fields covered by state law. Austin and Dallas mandatory construction water-break rules fall.
The Third Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court ruling on standing grounds, without reaching the merits, leaving the preemption operative.
Renewed for five years through 2031 across 55 high-risk industries. With no state standard, this plus the General Duty Clause is the operative heat enforcement in Texas.
OSHA proposed its heat rule in August 2024 and had not finalized it as of October 2026. Published agenda targets point to a supplemental proposal in December 2026 and final action in October 2027, but those dates have slipped before. Not withdrawn, not final, and not binding on anyone in 2026.
Dated items reflect what was publicly on the books or scheduled as of October 3, 2026. Effective dates slip and rules get amended — confirm current status before you rely on any of this.
Overtime: Weekly only — 1.5× past 40 hrs (federal FLSA). Meals: Not required by state law.
See Arizona rules Neighboring stateOvertime: 1.5× past 40/week, past 12/day, or past 12 consecutive hours — whichever pays more. Meals: 30 min duty-free for shifts over 5 hours.
See Colorado rules California guideDaily overtime, double time and the seventh-day rule — the benchmark the engine is built to.
Read the guide California guideThe fifth-hour meal window, the §226.7 premium, and waivers.
Read the guide CalculatorRun a shift against California overtime and double-time rules.
Open the calculator CalculatorTest a day against the §512 window and the premium it can owe.
Open the calculatorWeekly only. Texas follows the federal FLSA: 1.5× the regular rate past 40 hours in a workweek. There is no daily overtime and no double time under Texas law — a crew can work 12 hours on Monday with no overtime owed, as long as the week stays under 40.
No state law requires them for adult workers. If you do provide short breaks, federal rules make breaks under 20 minutes paid time, and a genuine meal period of 30 minutes or more can be unpaid only if the worker is fully relieved of duty. Many Texas contractors still schedule breaks for heat and safety reasons — they are simply not state-mandated.
Not as a matter of Texas law. HB 2127, effective September 2023 and left in place when an appeals court dismissed the cities’ challenge on standing grounds in July 2025, preempted the local ordinances in Austin and Dallas that had required them, and no state standard replaced those rules. Federal OSHA’s General Duty Clause still applies, and OSHA renewed its Heat National Emphasis Program in April 2026 through 2031 across 55 high-risk industries — so heat illness remains an enforceable hazard even without a prescriptive Texas rule.
Texas Labor Code Chapter 61. It requires non-exempt employees to be paid at least twice a month and exempt employees at least once a month, sets the 1st and 15th as default paydays when an employer designates none, and gives the Texas Workforce Commission authority over wage claims. It applies to employees, not to genuine independent contractors — which is why misclassification is where many Texas wage disputes actually begin.
Only if you promised to. Texas law does not require vacation or PTO payout on separation, but once a written policy or consistent practice promises one, the Texas Workforce Commission treats it as an enforceable wage under 40 TAC §821.25. Review the handbook language before you rely on the general rule.
CDO is in a pilot with one California roofing contractor, so California is where it is proven. Its engine is built to California’s stricter standard, which leaves Texas headroom: weekly overtime from minute-level punches, GPS-verified clock-ins recorded with their job, pay to the minute and never rounded down, heat-recovery prompts even where no rule requires them, and bilingual EN/ES crews. Job-level pay rates are coming soon.
GPS-verified clock-ins, breaks and overtime computed live, and the exceptions that need a human — shown on a working crew in 20 minutes.
CDO is in a pilot with one California roofing contractor. Software, not legal advice.