Every US employer works from the same federal baseline — the Fair Labor Standards Act sets a national minimum wage, a 40-hour weekly overtime rule, and recordkeeping duties — but that baseline is a floor, not a ceiling. States are free to add protections on top, and they differ enormously in how far they go. One state adopts the federal minimum verbatim and requires almost nothing more; another indexes a much higher wage to inflation, owes overtime by the day, mandates paid breaks, and forces final wages out the door the moment a worker is let go. The same job, moved across a state line, can carry a completely different set of payroll obligations. This note explains the analytical spine that runs through every jurisdiction — the federal floor and the five variables states move most — and links to the per-state practice notes, California and Texas, and to the 50-state survey for the jurisdiction-specific detail.
What is the federal floor, and how far do states move above it?
The Fair Labor Standards Act fixes a national minimum wage and a 40-hour weekly overtime rule that no state can undercut, but states can and do go higher. The range is wide. Texas adopts the federal minimum wage by reference and adds no state figure of its own , while California indexes a much higher statewide minimum to inflation so it climbs on a fixed schedule every year.
At the low end of the spectrum, a state simply borrows the federal number. The Texas Minimum Wage Act sets the state floor equal to the federal rate under the FLSA, so when the federal figure is $7.25 the Texas figure is $7.25.
At the high end, a state sets its own rate well above the federal floor and takes the number out of the legislature’s hands by tying it to a price index. California recalculates its statewide minimum each year against the national CPI-W, capped at a fixed annual step.
Most states land somewhere between these poles — a fixed state rate above the federal floor, sometimes tiered by region or employer size. The 50-state survey sets out each state’s figure.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
A.1 Tex. Lab. Code § 62.051The Texas Minimum Wage Act sets the state minimum wage equal to the federal minimum wage under Section 6 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, rather than adopting a higher state figure.
an employer shall pay to each employee the federal minimum wage under Section 6, Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. Section 206).
See Tex. Lab. Code § 62.051.
Primary law
A.2 California Labor Code Sec. 1182.12Labor Code section 1182.12 indexes the California minimum wage by directing an annual adjustment equal to the lesser of 3.5 percent and the change in the national CPI-W over the prior July-to-June period.
The calculation shall increase the minimum wage by the lesser of 3.5 percent and the rate of change in the averages of the most recent July 1 to June 30, inclusive, period over the preceding July 1 to June 30, inclusive, period for the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics nonseasonally adjusted United States Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (U.S. CPI-W).
See California Labor Code Sec. 1182.12.
Is overtime owed by the week, or by the day too?
The federal rule is weekly: time-and-a-half for hours past 40 in a workweek, and nothing extra for a long single day. Most states stop there. A handful go further and owe overtime on a daily basis. California is the clearest example — it adds daily overtime past eight hours and a double-time tier the federal rules do not have.
Under the federal baseline that Texas and most states follow, an employee who works four fifteen-hour days but takes the rest of the week off earns no overtime, because the week stays under 40 hours. A daily-overtime state changes that result entirely: the same schedule triggers premium pay on each long day. California pegs the premium to hours past eight in a day, hours past 40 in a week, and the first eight hours on a seventh consecutive workday.
Whether a state owes daily overtime is one of the largest swings in wage-and-hour exposure, because it changes how every long shift is priced. The 50-state survey flags which states have a daily rule.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
B.1 California Labor Code Sec. 510Labor Code section 510 requires one-and-one-half times the regular rate for hours over eight in a workday, hours over 40 in a workweek, and the first eight hours on the seventh consecutive workday — a daily overtime rule the federal FLSA does not impose.
Any work in excess of eight hours in one workday and any work in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek and the first eight hours worked on the seventh day of work in any one workweek shall be compensated at the rate of no less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for an employee.
See California Labor Code Sec. 510.
Are meal and rest breaks required?
Federal law requires no meal or rest breaks for adult workers, and many states — Texas among them — add none. Other states mandate breaks and back the mandate with a cash penalty. California is the strict pole: a missed meal, rest, or recovery period converts into an extra hour of pay at the worker’s regular rate for each day it happens.
Where a state imposes no break rule, the only limits come from the FLSA’s treatment of short breaks as paid time — there is no right to a lunch period at all. A break-mandate state is a different world. California requires a 30-minute meal period on longer shifts and paid rest periods, and enforces both with a premium that is separate for meals and rest, so up to two premiums can be owed in a single day.
Break rules are one of the sharpest divides between high-protection and low-regulation states, and the premium mechanism is what turns a scheduling lapse into real wage liability.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
C.1 California Labor Code Sec. 226.7Labor Code section 226.7 requires an employer that fails to provide a required meal, rest, or recovery period to pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the regular rate of compensation for each workday the period is not provided.
If an employer fails to provide an employee a meal or rest or recovery period in accordance with a state law, including, but not limited to, an applicable statute or applicable regulation, standard, or order of the Industrial Welfare Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, or the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the employer shall pay the employee one additional hour of pay at the employee’s regular rate of compensation for each workday that the meal or rest or recovery period is not provided.
See California Labor Code Sec. 226.7.
When must final wages be paid on separation?
This is one of the most state-specific rules of all. At one end, final wages are due immediately on discharge, as in California. In the middle, a state sets a fixed deadline of a few days — Texas requires payment within six days of a discharge. At the other end, several states simply key final pay to the next regular payday. The manner of separation — discharge versus quit — often changes the deadline within a single state.
California accelerates everything earned and unpaid to the moment of separation when the employer does the firing.
Texas sits in the middle, with a fixed statutory clock that runs from the date of discharge and a separate, later deadline for a worker who quits.
The penalty for missing the deadline varies as much as the deadline itself — from a continuing-wage waiting-time penalty in the strictest states to purely administrative enforcement in others. Check the governing state’s note before promising any separation date.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
D.1 California Labor Code Sec. 201Labor Code section 201 makes wages earned and unpaid at the time of discharge due and payable immediately.
If an employer discharges an employee, the wages earned and unpaid at the time of discharge are due and payable immediately.
See California Labor Code Sec. 201.
Primary law
D.2 Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014Texas Labor Code section 61.014 requires an employer to pay a discharged employee in full not later than the sixth day after discharge, and an employee who quits by the next regularly scheduled payday.
An employer shall pay in full an employee who is discharged from employment not later than the sixth day after the date the employee is discharged.
See Tex. Lab. Code § 61.014.
Who counts as an employee in the first place?
None of these rules apply to a genuine independent contractor, so the classification test is the gateway to everything else — and it varies by state. The strictest states use the ABC test, which presumes employment and puts the burden on the hiring entity to prove all three prongs, as California does by statute. Most states, including Texas, instead apply the older common-law right-of-control test, which weighs who controls the details of the work.
Under an ABC regime, a worker is an employee unless the company proves the worker is free from its control, works outside its usual business, and is independently established in the trade. Because the prongs are conjunctive, the middle prong is usually the hardest to clear.
A common-law state asks a looser, more fact-intensive question about the right to control the means and details of the work, which gives businesses more room but less certainty. Because the same worker can be an employee in one state and a contractor in another, classification is where a multistate wage-and-hour analysis has to start. The per-state notes set out each state’s test — California and Texas — and the 50-state survey collects the rest.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
E.1 California Labor Code Sec. 2775Labor Code section 2775 codifies the ABC test: a worker is presumed an employee unless the hiring entity demonstrates all three prongs — freedom from control, work outside the usual course of the entity's business, and independent engagement in the trade.
For purposes of this code and the Unemployment Insurance Code, and for the purposes of wage orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission, a person providing labor or services for remuneration shall be considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that all of the following conditions are satisfied: (A) The person is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact. (B) The person performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business. (C) The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.
See California Labor Code Sec. 2775.
How should a multistate employer use this framework?
Start from the federal floor, then check the governing state for each of the five variables that move most: the minimum wage, whether overtime is daily or only weekly, whether breaks are mandated, how fast final pay is due, and which classification test applies. Confirm the classification test first — it decides whether the worker is covered at all — and the minimum wage second, because the two set the reach of everything else. A payroll policy that is compliant in a low-regulation state can be badly out of compliance one state over.
Do not run one national wage-and-hour policy without checking each state’s rules. The federal FLSA is only the floor: a state can require a higher minimum wage, daily overtime, paid breaks, faster final pay, and a stricter employee-classification test than the federal-floor baseline a state like Texas adopts , up to the ABC-test, indexed-wage regime a state like California imposes. Begin with the governing state’s note and the 50-state survey, confirm the minimum wage and classification test first because they decide who and what the rest of the rules reach, and treat final-pay timing as separation-specific rather than tied to the next payroll run.
Each per-state note walks the same question set in the same order, so a policy can be compared jurisdiction by jurisdiction: California and Texas today, with more states added on a rolling basis. The 50-state survey is the at-a-glance grid across every jurisdiction.
Sources for this answer
Primary law
F.1 California Labor Code Sec. 2775Labor Code section 2775 codifies the ABC test, under which a worker is presumed an employee unless the hiring entity proves all three prongs — the classification gateway that decides whether the wage-and-hour rules apply at all.
a person providing labor or services for remuneration shall be considered an employee rather than an independent contractor unless the hiring entity demonstrates that all of the following conditions are satisfied
See California Labor Code Sec. 2775.
Primary law
F.2 Tex. Lab. Code § 62.051The Texas Minimum Wage Act sets the state minimum wage equal to the federal minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act — the federal-floor pole against which higher-protection states are measured.
an employer shall pay to each employee the federal minimum wage under Section 6, Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. Section 206).
See Tex. Lab. Code § 62.051.