Effective September 1, 2001, Texas adopted the federal minimum wage rate by reference. This means that, unless otherwise exempt, every employer in Texas must pay each of its employees not less than the current minimum rate to $5.15 an hour as of 9/1/01.
The Texas minimum wage law applies to all employees except: (1) persons
subject to federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); (2) any person who is a
member of a religious order while performing any service for or at the direction
of the order and any duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister, priest,
rabbi, sexton, or Christian Science reader while performing services as such for
a church, synagogue, or religious organization; (3) any person under 18 who is
not a high school or vocational training program graduate, and any person under
20 who is a regularly enrolled high school, college, university, or vocational
training program student (however, this exemption does not apply to persons
employed in agriculture who are paid on a piece-rate basis); (4) bona fide
executive, administrative or professional employees and public officials; (5)
outside salespersons or collectors paid on a commission basis; (6) any person
performing domestic service in or about private homes, including babysitting in
or out of the employer's home, and any person while living in or about the home
providing personal care for any resident of the home; (7) inmates of the state
penitentiary or local jails; (8) any person engaged in activities of an
educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization in which the
employer/employee relationship does not in fact exist or in which the services
are rendered to the organization gratuitously; (9) any person employed by an
immediate relative or in-law, guardian or person standing in place of an
immediate relative, in-law or guardian; (10) handicapped persons under 22 who
are clients of a vocational rehabilitation workshop and participating in a
cooperative school-work program; (11) any person employed by an amusement or
recreational establishment that does not operate for more than seven months of
any calendar year, or whose average receipts for any six months of the preceding
calendar year do not exceed 33.3 percent of its average receipts for the other
six months of the same year; (12) any employee of the Boy Scouts of America,
Girl Scouts of America, or affiliated organizations; (13) any person employed by
any camp of a religious, educational, charitable or nonprofit organization; (14)
any person employed in dairy farming; (15) any person, except those employed in
agriculture, whose employer is not subject to liability for payment of
contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Fund under the provisions of the
Texas Unemployment Compensation Act, as amended and (16) persons employed with
their spouses by nonprofit educational institutions to serve as parents of (a)
orphans or children with only one living parent or (b) institutionalized
children, if the employees live in and receive board and lodging from the
institution.