Texas Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official Texas Workforce CommissionTexas's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour in 2026, matching the federal minimum. This Texas minimum wage calculator turns that hourly rate into the numbers that actually matter to you: weekly, monthly and yearly pay. At $7.25 an hour, someone working a full 40-hour week earns about $290.00 before tax, or roughly $15,080.00 across a full year. Enter your own hours per week and weeks worked to see your gross pay, and edit the rate if you are paid above the minimum. The minimum wage is a floor, not a ceiling: employers can pay more, and some cities in Texas set their own higher local minimums. Tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage as long as tips bring them up to the minimum; see the tipped calculator for that. The figure here is the state rate for 2026, sourced directly from the Texas Workforce Commission; the pay calculation is simply hours times the rate.
Texas's 2026 minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Full time (40 hrs/week) that is about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax.
How Texas minimum wage pay is calculated
weekly pay = hourly rate x hours per week
annual pay = hourly rate x hours per week x weeks per year
overtime = hourly rate x 1.5 (hours over 40 in a week, FLSA)
These are gross figures before federal and Texas income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Your take-home pay is lower; see our Texas paycheck calculator for the after-tax amount.
Why the Texas floor has stayed at $7.25 since 2009
Texas does not set a minimum wage of its own. The Texas Minimum Wage Act (Labor Code Chapter 62) adopts the federal rate by reference, so the floor has stayed at $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, unchanged for more than 16 years. A full-time year at that rate is 2,080 hours, or about $15,080.00 before tax, and the real value of that paycheck has fallen sharply as prices rose over the same period.
A detail most people miss: the Act exempts anyone already covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which is nearly every employer. In practice the state statute almost never binds, and federal law sets the actual floor for the vast majority of Texas jobs. Texas also bars cities and counties from going higher for private employers, so despite headlines about Austin, Dallas or San Antonio raising pay, those ordinances reach only city staff and contractors. No Texas city has a higher minimum wage for a private-sector job.
For tipped staff, Texas mirrors the federal setup: an employer can pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and claim up to a $5.12 tip credit, as long as tips lift total pay to at least $7.25. One local wrinkle: a worker counts as tipped once they earn more than $20 a month in tips, below the federal $30 line. If tips fall short in a slow week, the employer must cover the gap.
Texas minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the minimum wage in Texas in 2026?
Texas's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour in 2026, matching the federal minimum. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker (40 hours a week) earns about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax. This rate took effect on July 24, 2009.
How much is full-time minimum wage in Texas per year?
At Texas's $7.25 minimum wage, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours, which comes to about $15,080.00 a year ($1,256.67 a month) in gross pay before tax and deductions. Part-time hours scale down from there; use the calculator to enter your own hours.
Is Texas's minimum wage going up?
Texas does not automatically index its minimum wage to inflation, so it changes only when the law changes. The figure here is the 2026 rate verified with the Texas Workforce Commission.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Texas?
Texas lets employers pay tipped workers a lower cash wage of $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 of tips toward the minimum (a "tip credit"). If cash wage plus tips does not reach $7.25 an hour, the employer must make up the difference. See our Texas tipped minimum wage calculator for the full breakdown.
Is Texas's minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage?
No. The rate that applies in Texas is the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Where a state and the federal rate differ, workers are entitled to the higher of the two.
Official sources
- Texas 2026 minimum wage rate: Texas Workforce Commission, as at July 11, 2026.
- Federal minimum wage ($7.25) and overtime rules: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 11 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not legal or financial advice. The Texas Minimum Wage Act adopts the federal rate; unchanged since 2009. Local minimums: Texas prohibits cities and counties from setting a local minimum wage above the state rate.