Tennessee: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Tennessee has no statewide law requiring a private employer to provide paid sick leave or general earned paid leave; the state labor agency says paid time off and sick pay are employer-determined fringe benefits. Company policy or a labor agreement controls any voluntary leave, including whether unused leave is paid at separation. State law also preempts local governments from requiring a leave policy that adds to state requirements.
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This is the general rule in Tennessee. Ezel applies current Tennessee law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide statute requires private employers to provide paid sick leave or earned paid leave; TDLWD says Tennessee law does not regulate fringe benefits and company policy controls. Local mandates are preempted: § 7-51-1802(b) bars local leave policies that add to state requirements, and current § 7-51-1802(g), effective March 6, 2026, preempts the entire field of employment terms unless state law expressly allows local action. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | Not applicable — with no statewide paid-leave mandate there is no employer-size threshold, days-worked test, or covered/excluded employee class for paid sick leave. Any coverage is defined by the employer's policy or labor agreement. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | Not applicable — no statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, waiting period, or alternative accrual method. Any rate or annual amount is set by employer policy or agreement. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Not applicable — no statutory frontloading rule, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover requirement. Whether leave is frontloaded, capped, or carried over depends on employer policy or agreement. |
| Qualifying uses and family | Not applicable — no statutory list of paid-sick-leave uses and no statutory definition of covered family members. The employer's policy or agreement defines when and for whom voluntary leave may be used. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | Not applicable — no statutory request method, advance-notice standard, documentation limit, confidentiality rule, or minimum use increment for paid sick leave. The employer's policy or agreement supplies those terms. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No statutory paid-sick-leave pay rate, separation payout, rehire-restoration, balance-statement, or record duty. TDLWD states unused fringe benefits need not be paid at separation unless the employer's policy or labor agreement specifically requires payment. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No paid-sick-leave poster, individual-notice, anti-retaliation, agency-enforcement, or paid-leave-specific remedy provision. Any voluntary benefit is governed by the employer's policy or labor agreement; separate laws may protect other kinds of leave or conduct. |
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How paid sick leave works in Tennessee
Tennessee has no statewide paid sick leave law for private employers. The state
labor agency classifies paid time off and sick pay as fringe benefits "determined
by the employer" and answers the mandate question directly: "There is no
Tennessee law that regulates fringe benefits." An employer therefore decides
whether to offer paid sick leave and sets the accrual, annual amount, carryover,
uses, notice, proof, increments, and other terms in its policy or labor
agreement.
The same policy controls unused leave at separation. Tennessee does not require
unused sick leave or PTO to be paid in the final paycheck unless the employer's
policy or labor agreement specifically promises that payment. Read the actual
policy before assuming that an accrued balance will be paid out.
Local governments cannot create a private-employer paid-leave mandate to fill
the statewide gap. Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1802(b) bars a local government from
requiring an employer to establish a leave policy that "supplements" or "adds
to" state requirements. A 2026 amendment added an even broader rule: subsection
(g) now says the General Assembly "preempts and occupies the entire field" of
employment terms and conditions and bars local requirements that exceed state
or federal law unless state law expressly authorizes them. Public Chapter 552
made that rule effective when the Governor signed it on March 6, 2026.
What trips people up
No mandate is not the same as no policy. An employer may voluntarily provide
paid sick leave, combine it with vacation in a PTO bank, or negotiate it through
a labor agreement. Those documents supply the operative terms even though state
law sets no minimum benefit.
An accrued balance is not automatically payable at separation. The state
labor agency says unused fringe benefits need not be included in final wages
unless the employer's policy or labor agreement specifically requires payment.
A Tennessee city or county cannot add a private-employer leave floor. The
older leave-specific preemption remains in § 7-51-1802(b), and the effective
2026 subsection (g) broadly preempts local employment terms that exceed state or
federal law. The statute separately exempts a local government's treatment of
its own employees from those subsections.
Other leave rules can still matter. The absence of a statewide paid-sick-
leave mandate does not decide rights under a separate federal or state leave,
disability, pregnancy, safety, workers' compensation, or employment agreement.
Common questions
Does a Tennessee private employer have to give paid sick days?
No. Tennessee does not require a private employer to provide paid sick leave or
general earned paid leave. The employer's policy or labor agreement determines
whether the benefit exists.
Who sets the accrual rate and carryover rules?
The employer does. Tennessee has no statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement,
carryover requirement, or use cap for paid sick leave, so the written policy or
agreement controls.
Must unused sick leave be paid when employment ends?
Only if the employer's policy or labor agreement specifically requires it. The
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development says state law does not
otherwise require unused fringe benefits in final wages.
Can Nashville, Memphis, or another local government require paid sick leave?
No. Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1802(b) preempts local leave policies that add to
state requirements, and subsection (g), effective March 6, 2026, broadly
preempts local employment terms that exceed state or federal law.
Statutes and sources
- Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Wages & Breaks.
States that paid time off and sick pay are employer-determined fringe
benefits, Tennessee law does not regulate those benefits, company policy or a
labor agreement controls, and unused benefits are paid at separation only if
that policy or agreement requires payment. Tennessee Department of Labor and
Workforce
Development
(accessed July 22, 2026). - Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1802(b), enacted by 2013 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 91,
§ 2. Bars local governments from requiring employer leave policies that
deviate from, supplement, or add to state requirements, with a federal-
contract exception. Tennessee Secretary of
State (accessed
July 22, 2026). - Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1802(e), (g), enacted by 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch.
552, §§ 1-3. Effective March 6, 2026, preempts the entire field of employment
terms and conditions and bars local requirements exceeding state or federal
law unless state law expressly allows them; exempts local-government
employees. Tennessee Secretary of
State (accessed
July 22, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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