Austin Employment Lawyers

There’s no substitute for the insights of an attorney, who can analyze how the law applies to a specific situation. In the meantime, here’s a basic look at some key protections for employees working in the Austin area.

One of the most common areas of friction between a business and an employee involves the payment of wages. Austin doesn’t provide its own minimum wage for private-sector employees, although special rules apply to city employees. The Texas Minimum Wage Act provides certain protections for employees who aren’t covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. However, that federal law applies broadly to most workplaces. It sets the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour. Businesses where employees receive tips can pay them a lower minimum wage if the tips make up the difference, although a business still must pay at least $2.13 per hour no matter how much an employee gets in tips.

If an employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek, the overtime provision of the FLSA requires the employer to pay them 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked above that limit. However, certain groups of employees are exempt from FLSA rules. These include executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees, as well as certain computer employees, among other exemptions. The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor enforces this federal law.

Time that’s considered compensable under the FLSA includes some situations that might not be obvious. Here are some examples:

• Time when the business requires the employee to remain on call at their workplace (and sometimes time when the employee is required to remain on call at home, depending on how much the employer restricts their activities)
• Rest breaks of 20 minutes or less
• Traveling as part of a day’s work (but not commuting between home and work)
• Training programs related to the job

Meanwhile, the Texas Minimum Wage Act imposes the same $7.25/hour minimum wage that the FLSA requires. It allows employers to count tips and the value of meals and lodging toward their minimum wage obligations, within certain limitations. Businesses and their workers are free to negotiate a higher wage through collective bargaining. Like the FLSA, the state law exempts certain groups of employees. It doesn’t allow cities to enact ordinances with a different minimum wage for the private sector. The law is enforced by the Texas Workforce Commission.

Austin, Texas, and federal laws safeguard employees from discrimination based on certain protected traits. Some forms of discrimination include:

• Firing an employee
• Refusing to hire a job applicant
• Demoting or refusing to promote an employee
• Paying unequal amounts for similar work
• Withholding benefits
• Denying access to training programs
• Issuing undesirable job assignments
• Harassment that reaches a certain level
• Failing to reasonably accommodate a disability, pregnancy, or religious practice

The Austin anti-discrimination ordinance generally applies to businesses with 15 or more employees, although a specific provision covering sexual harassment applies to employers of all sizes. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age (40 and older), protective hairstyle, reproductive health action, or disability. (A “protective hairstyle” generally means a hairstyle resulting from the characteristics of a hair texture or hairstyle associated with race, national origin, ethnicity, or culture, while “reproductive health action” includes getting services or counseling related to issues such as abortion, birth control, or family planning.) The Austin Office of Civil Rights enforces this law. You’ll need to file a charge with the Office within 180 days after the violation in most cases, or within 300 days if you’re claiming sexual harassment.

The Texas Commission on Human Rights Act is the main employment discrimination law at the state level. Protected traits under the TCHRA include race (including hair texture or protective hairstyle), color, disability, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, and age (40 and older). Like the Austin ordinance, it largely covers employers with at least 15 employees, with the same exception for sexual harassment. The same time periods for filing a complaint apply, including the special sexual harassment deadline. Your complaint would go to the Civil Rights Division of the Texas Workforce Commission.

Austin employees also may bring claims under federal anti-discrimination laws. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), and national origin. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Title VII prohibition against sex discrimination also covers sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. This law applies to businesses with 15 or more employees. Two other key laws are the Americans With Disabilities Act, which prohibits disability discrimination, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects employees who are 40 or older. The ADA applies to businesses with at least 15 employees, like Title VII, while the ADEA is a little more limited in that it covers businesses with 20 or more employees. You generally have 180 days to file a charge of employment discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission if you suspect a violation of a federal law, but this deadline extends to 300 days if a state agency enforces a state law that prohibits discrimination on the same basis.

Sexual harassment can take physical, verbal, or written forms. There are two main types of sexual harassment claims. First, quid pro quo (“this for that”) sexual harassment happens when a supervisor or someone else with the authority to make job decisions demands that an employee engage in sexual conduct in exchange for a favorable employment action, or to avoid an adverse action. For example, if your manager says that you’ll get the job assignment that you wanted if you spend the night with him, this would be quid pro quo harassment.

Meanwhile, hostile work environment harassment may occur when the unwelcome conduct creates a job environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to a reasonable person in the employee’s shoes. It needs to be severe or pervasive, but it doesn’t need to be both. In other words, you could potentially bring a hostile work environment claim after a single severe incident, or after a sequence of smaller incidents that wouldn’t be enough individually to support a claim. Whether the “severe or pervasive” standard is met depends on the unique facts of a case.

Under federal law, an employer is generally liable for harassment by a supervisor, although there may be an affirmative defense in limited cases. (There’s no defense if the harassment resulted in an adverse employment action.) This would require showing that the employer tried to stop and fix the harassment, but the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of these opportunities. Meanwhile, an employer may be liable for harassment by coworkers or non-employees, such as customers or clients, if it knew or should have known about the harassment but didn’t respond promptly and appropriately.

The Austin and Texas anti-discrimination laws have specific provisions on employer liability for sexual harassment that are essentially identical to each other. (As noted above, they apply to employers of all sizes.) These make an employer liable for sexual harassment if the employer or its agents or supervisors knew or should have known about the conduct but failed to take immediate and appropriate steps to fix the problem.

An employer may need to take time off from work to address challenges involving their health or the health of a family member. Austin passed a paid sick leave ordinance several years ago, but courts blocked its enforcement, and the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act now bars cities and counties from adopting or enforcing these types of laws. The state also doesn’t have a law providing rights in these situations. This makes the federal Family and Medical Leave Act the main protection for Austin employees. Like the FLSA, it’s enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Under the FMLA, you generally can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid but job-protected leave in a 12-month period. However, this law applies only to certain types of employers and employees. Private-sector businesses are generally covered only if they have at least 50 employees, while an employee must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period before taking FMLA leave. They also need to work in a location where the business has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

Qualifying reasons for taking FMLA leave include a serious medical condition of the employee that prevents them from working, as well as caring for a spouse, child, or parent who has a similar type of concern. You can also use FMLA leave during the first year after your child was born, or after you adopted a child or took a foster child into your family. If you have a spouse, parent, or child in the U.S. armed forces, you may be able to take FMLA leave to address certain issues involving their active-duty service.

The FMLA also provides for “military caregiver leave,” which allows you to take up to 26 weeks in a 12-month period if you need to care for a qualifying family member in the military (or recently in the military) who is dealing with a covered serious injury or illness.

Some employers go beyond what the FMLA requires and provide their employees with rights to leave. If your employer doesn’t comply with its obligations under a contract, you could sue them for that violation even if a statute doesn’t protect you.

Texas parallels most states in adopting a rule called “at-will employment.” This means that a business generally can terminate an employee for any reason, or for no particular reason. An employee has a similar right to quit without having a particular reason. At-will employment doesn’t apply universally, though. One of the main exceptions involves a violation of a local, state, or federal anti-discrimination law. You likely would have a wrongful termination claim if you got fired because you have a legally protected trait, or if you got fired in retaliation for filing a charge of discrimination or participating in an investigation of alleged discrimination.

The Texas Supreme Court has developed a doctrine called the “Sabine Pilot rule,” which prevents an employer from firing an employee because they refused to do something that could be punished as a crime. Other examples of situations in which the at-will employment rule doesn’t apply include firing an employee for taking legally protected leave or for pursuing workers’ compensation benefits.

A business and an employee also may limit potential grounds for termination in the employment contract. An employee could bring a wrongful termination lawsuit based on a breach of this contract if they get fired for a reason that’s not allowed. It’s best to get an attorney on your side if you’re considering this type of claim, since the law in this area is nuanced and hard to navigate on your own.

Unfortunately, accidents and illnesses often happen on the job. Employers in Texas generally don’t need to sign up for workers’ compensation coverage. If your employer doesn’t have workers’ comp, you can potentially sue them for damages in a personal injury lawsuit. If they have workers’ comp, you can’t sue them, although you can sue someone else who caused or contributed to your injuries, such as a manufacturer of defective equipment. This may help you get a broader range of compensation than what workers’ comp covers.

Workers’ comp provides benefits for job-related injuries and illnesses regardless of fault. You’ll need to report your injury to your employer within 30 days. Meanwhile, you have one year to file a claim after your injury. The Division of Workers’ Compensation in the Texas Department of Insurance oversees the workers’ comp system.

This will allow you to get reimbursed for reasonable and necessary medical care, as well as some of your lost wages due to the injury or illness. For example, you could get temporary income benefits if you miss some or all of your wages for more than seven days. Impairment income benefits cover an injury or illness that permanently affects your body as a whole, while an employee sometimes may get supplemental income benefits after their impairment income benefits end. Lifetime income benefits compensate an employee for certain injuries specified by the law. If an employee tragically loses their life in an accident on the job, their loved ones may be able to recover death benefits and burial benefits.

The Texas Workforce Commission provides unemployment benefits to many people who have been terminated through no fault of their own. (These benefits aren’t available to a former employee who lost their job due to misconduct or inadequate job performance.) An employee who quit also might be able to get unemployment benefits if their reason was strong enough. For example, leaving your job because of concerns about workplace hazards or your employer’s failure to pay you could entitle you to these benefits. Serious medical concerns involving the employee or their child also might qualify.

In 2025, Texas capped unemployment benefits at $591 per week, while providing for a $74 minimum weekly payment. Within that range, the specific amount that an employee receives will depend on their past wages. Benefits are available for up to 26 weeks in the 52-week benefit year. An employee must be able and available to work to continue receiving benefits. They must regularly search for work and register on a government website for that purpose.

A regional economic partnership called Opportunity Austin lists major employers in the Austin region. Entities employing 6,000 or more people include:

• Amazon Fulfillment Centers
• Apple
• Applied Materials
• Ascension Seton
• Dell Technologies
• H-E-B
• IBM
• Samsung Austin Semiconductor
• St. David’s HealthCare Partnership
• Tesla

Public employers with 6,000 or more employees include the federal government, the State of Texas, the City of Austin, the University of Texas, and school districts in Austin and Round Rock.

If you think that your employer might have violated your rights, you may want to reach out to the agency that enforces the applicable law. Here are some of the key agencies to know in this field:

• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: enforces the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act
• Texas Workforce Commission: enforces the Texas Minimum Wage Act
• Austin Office of Civil Rights: enforces the city anti-discrimination ordinance
• Texas Workforce Commission, Civil Rights Division: enforces the state anti-discrimination law
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: enforces most federal anti-discrimination laws

Questions and concerns about workers’ compensation can go to the Division of Workers’ Compensation in the Texas Department of Insurance. The Texas Workforce Commission manages the unemployment benefits program.

Employees who want to know more about their workplace rights can consult the Employment Law Center in the Justia Legal Guides. This is just one of many free resources that we offer to help inform and empower ordinary people. If you want guidance tailored to a particular question or issue, you might want to post a question on our Justia Ask A Lawyer forum. Employment lawyers in the Austin area or elsewhere in Texas might share their thoughts, based on their training in the field and the cases that they’ve handled. (Note that Justia isn’t a law firm, and you don’t have an attorney-client relationship with a lawyer who responds to you on Justia Ask A Lawyer.)

If the situation warrants getting an attorney on your side, you can explore the listings in the Justia Lawyer Directory. These make it easy to compare your options, streamlining the process. However, you’ll want to think through this decision carefully because your choice of attorney could have a significant impact on the outcome of your case.

Workplace disputes can be daunting. They may affect not only your professional prospects but also your physical and emotional wellbeing. Although retaining legal counsel may appear to be an added cost that you don’t need to undertake, it usually proves worthwhile in the big picture.

Attorneys bring wide-ranging expertise that can meaningfully boost your prospects of a favorable outcome. They stay current on shifting laws and regulations, as well as rulings by courts and administrative adjudicatory entities. Sometimes a case can hinge on a small nuance in a law or how it’s interpreted. You might not spot this issue on your own.

Your lawyer also can compile evidence that demonstrates any violations of your rights and indicates the scope of the costs and other harm that you incurred. Many employment disputes are resolved through settlements, and they can make sure that an employer doesn’t take advantage of you during this process. An attorney also can advise you on whether to accept a settlement or continue pursuing your case, although the final decision is up to you. Should a hearing or trial be necessary, they will understand procedural requirements, develop a strategy for presenting your position, and give your case a layer of professional polish that could help persuade a judge or jury.

It’s not always straightforward finding the best attorney for you. Even if you happen to get suggestions from friends or family, you’ll probably still do online research. Tools like the Justia Lawyer Directory can help compare the attorneys in Austin and narrow down options.

Since employment law spans a broad spectrum of issues, you’ll want to find an attorney who has handled cases like yours. For instance, if you’re pursuing unpaid overtime, you’ll want someone experienced in wage and hour cases. If you believe you were rejected for a position because of your religion, you should try to find a lawyer who has brought many employment discrimination claims.

You also should take the time to examine an attorney’s disciplinary record with the State Bar of Texas. While a minor lapse may not be enough to take an attorney out of your consideration by itself, multiple or severe violations should raise concerns. You don’t want to compromise your case by choosing an advocate who lacks competence or integrity.

Checking a firm’s website for case outcomes can reveal their proficiency and areas of focus. Reviews from previous clients might give you a sense of an attorney’s personality. Endorsements from their peers can suggest that they’re highly regarded in the legal field—a benefit in both negotiations and adversarial proceedings like hearings or trials.

Many employment lawyers offer an initial case evaluation for no charge. Make use of that opportunity to discuss your circumstances and see if you feel comfortable with the attorney. Ask yourself whether they seem knowledgeable and whether you relate well to them. Ultimately, you deserve representation from someone who genuinely cares about your concerns and treats you with respect and compassion.

1. How much does it cost to get an employment lawyer?

   An employment attorney may charge their fee on an hourly basis. Thus, it would reflect how much time they spend on your case. This could depend on factors such as how complex the case is and how strongly it’s contested. However, some employment lawyers charge contingency fees. This means that you don’t pay your attorney unless they get money for you. Their fee is a portion of the settlement or judgment in the case. If you just want an attorney to handle a simple, routine task, you might be able to get this done for a flat fee. It’s critical to understand the fee structure that an attorney uses before signing a representation agreement.

2. What should I do if I suspect discrimination or harassment in my workplace?

   Most employers have internal procedures for reporting discrimination or harassment. You should make sure to familiarize yourself with your employer’s policy and go through the required steps as soon as you think that illegal conduct might be occurring. Keep records of what happened and your communications with your employer. If the issue isn’t resolved internally, you can file a charge of discrimination with a government agency that enforces an anti-discrimination law that applies to your workplace.

3. Are employees entitled to severance pay in Texas?

   State law doesn’t require an employer to provide severance pay unless there’s a document like an employment contract or company policy that guarantees this right. Often, an employer offers severance pay in exchange for releasing any potential claims against the employer, such as allegations of discrimination or harassment. You should think carefully before signing a severance agreement if it comes with conditions.

4. Can my employer discipline me for reporting discrimination if it turns out that they didn’t break the law?

   Your employer can’t retaliate against you for filing a complaint of discrimination as long as you filed it in good faith. It doesn’t matter whether they actually broke the law. (This doesn’t stop your employer from firing you for other reasons.) If an employee didn’t honestly believe that a violation occurred and just filed the complaint to interfere with a coworker or the employer, they’re not protected from retaliation.

5. Can I record conversations with my employer or coworkers if I suspect unlawful behavior?

   Texas is a one-party consent state, so it’s generally legal to record a conversation if only one party to the conversation consents to it. (In other words, you can record a conversation in which you’re taking part without getting anyone else’s consent.) However, even though it’s legal, your employer might have policies about this issue. You might face discipline for violations. It’s probably best to talk with an attorney about how to gather evidence for a potential claim.