Tennessee Labor Laws

In the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a significant federal law regarding workplace time management. It sets hourly wage rates and overtime pay and requires employers to keep accurate records of their employees’ working hours. These laws of the FLSA act as directives for employers, keeping them in check and minimizing any forms of abuse or exploitation.

Tennessee labor laws adhere closely to the FLSA. If both laws contradict, the policy with stricter protection applies. While minimum wage and overtime match federal guidelines, state laws offer additional break provisions to employees. 

Employers who contravene these laws can face severe legal ramifications, including fines, back pay, and damages. If an employee believes their employer has violated state time management or labor laws, they can file a wage claim with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to begin an investigation and legal action.

The Tennessee Human Rights Act makes it illegal for employers with eight or more employees to discriminate against individuals in hiring or employment based on:

Furthermore, under the Tennessee CROWN Act, employers cannot discriminate against employees for wearing certain hairstyles that signify certain cultural elements, such as braids, locs, or twists. However, public safety employees are exempt from the protections of this Act if such hairstyles interfere with the effectiveness of the employee’s job duties or if mandatory industry safety standards discourage such hairdos. 

Individuals with disabilities are protected under the Tennessee Disability Act, which requires employers with eight or more employees to treat job applicants and employees fairly, regardless of visual, physical, or mental disabilities. Visually disabled persons requiring a guide dog are also protected under this Act. 

Under the Tennessee Equal Pay Act, working employees in Tennessee cannot be paid different wages due to sex for the same type of work. Wage differences in an organization should only exist based on employee seniority, capability, or any reasonable factor other than sex.

Tennessee follows the “right-to-work” policy. This law ensures that no employee can be compelled to join or not join a union as a condition of their employment. Under this law, it is illegal for an employer or organization to refuse to hire someone based on their membership, resignation, or refusal to join a labor union or employee organization or to exclude them from employment for these reasons. 

It is also unlawful to deny employment based on payment or non-payment of union dues or to prohibit someone from withdrawing from a union or employee organization. Violators of this law can face prosecution for a Class A misdemeanor.

Tennessee is also an at-will employment state. This means that an employer is permitted to terminate the contract of an employee at any time, without providing a specific reason for doing so. Likewise, an employee can choose to quit their job at any time without consequence. However, it is important to note that an employer cannot wrongfully fire an employee due to discrimination. 

Additionally, employers in Tennessee cannot discipline or terminate an employee for performing military duty, voting, joining or leaving voluntary associations, having wages garnished due to unpaid debts, filing a workers’ compensation claim, or serving on a jury.

After an employee’s resignation or termination, state laws require employers to pay a worker’s final wages by their next regular payday or within 21 days from the day of discharge (whichever occurs later). 

For plant closures and mass layoffs, Tennessee’s Mini-WARN Act requires employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees to duly notify the workers, supervisors, employees’ labor unions, and the Tennessee Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development in the event of a mass layoff of 50 or more employees.

Some important labor laws governing employment relations in Tennessee include:

• Health Insurance Continuation Laws: An employee and their dependents can be eligible to keep their health insurance coverage through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). To qualify, employees must be part of a state group health, dental, or vision program. COBRA can provide health insurance for up to 36 months, but it’s important to note that coverage doesn’t start until a written notice is provided within 60 days of employment ending. Furthermore, employees can be required to pay 102% of the plan’s monthly premium under COBRA. 
• Workplace Safety Laws: The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) is responsible for ensuring safe and healthy conditions in industrial, construction, and agricultural workplaces. Like its federal counterpart, TOSHA establishes and enforces safety and health standards in the workplace. It also offers various services such as training, education, and consultations to prevent work-related deaths or injuries. TOSHA applies to most private-sector workplaces, as well as state and local government workplaces. However, it does not cover federal government employers such as the USPS.
• Whistleblower Protection Laws: No employee in Tennesee can be fired for refusal to partake in an illicit activity or reporting them to relevant authorities. Moreover, under TOSHA, employers are prohibited from taking retaliatory action against employees who complain or testify about workplace health and safety violations. An employee, who is a victim of retaliatory discharge, can sue their employer for damages and claim attorney fees and any other expenses.
• Recordkeeping Laws: Employers covered by the FLSA must keep certain records of non-exempt employees for a minimum of three years. This includes personal information such as name, address, birth date (if under 19), and gender, as well as details about their occupation and work hours. Employers must also track the beginning of an employee’s workweek, their method of payment (hourly or weekly, for example), their wage, overtime earnings, and any deductions or additions to their pay. Finally, employers must securely document wages and paydays for each wage period.

A minimum wage is the lowest compensation an employer is mandated to pay an employee for work performed in a certain time. This amount cannot be further reduced by mutual agreement between an employer and employee. 

Currently, Tennessee does not have its own laws governing minimum wage for all employees. However, employers covered by the FLSA must pay their employees the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour.

Where federal laws allow disabled workers, students, learners, and apprentices to be paid subminimum wages, Tennessee wage laws require the same minimum wage i.e. $7.25 per hour for all employees. 

In Tennessee, any worker who earns more than $30 in tips per month is considered a tipped employee. Employers in Tennessee are allowed to withhold $5.12 as tip credit from a tipped employee’s wage. This allows them to pay such workers a reduced cash wage of $2.13 per hour. 

However, following the FLSA,  a tipped employee’s total hourly earnings must be at least $7.25 per hour. If not, the employer is responsible for covering the difference.

Under the FLSA, certain employees are considered exempt from minimum wage provisions including:

• Executive, professional, and administrative employees
• Computer employees
• Highly compensated employees
• Farm workers
• Employees in fishing industries
• Babysitters employed on a casual basis
• Elderly care workers
• Domestic employees making wreaths
• Federal criminal investigators
• Newspaper delivery persons
• Switchboard operators
• Seamen on non-American vessels
• Newspaper employees of small newspaper agencies 

Private employees in Tennessee must be paid at least once a month. For monthly pay periods, wages earned before the first day of a month must be paid by the fifth day of the next month.

If an employee is paid more than once per month, wage payments must be scheduled as follows: 

• Wages earned before the first day of any month must be paid no later than the 20th of the month succeeding the month in which the wages were earned. 
• Wages earned before the 16th day of any month must be paid no later than the fifth day of the succeeding month.

In Tennessee, non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours weekly are eligible to receive overtime pay calculated at 1.5 times their regular pay rate for every hour worked as overtime.

Public employees in Tennessee can also choose to earn compensatory time off (comp time) instead of cash wages for hours worked as overtime. Comp time accrues at a rate of one and a half hours for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek.

Beginning January 1, 2025, any employee earning at least $1,128 per week or $58,656 per year is considered ‘exempt’ from receiving any overtime compensation. This typically includes executive, administrative, and professional workers, computer employees (earning at least $27.63 per hour), and outside sales employees.

Additionally, the following is a list of some occupations exempt under the FLSA:

• Agricultural or horticultural employees
• Commissioned sales employees in retail or service establishments
• Motor carrier employees providing inter-state or foreign transportation services 
• Boat salespersons
• Seamen on American vessels
• Taxicab drivers
• Airline workers
• Babysitters
• Amusement/recreational employees
• Fruit & vegetable transportation employees
• Newspaper delivery persons
• Railroad employees
• Motion picture theater employees

Learn more in detail about Tennessee salaried employees laws and Tennessee overtime laws.

In Tennessee, workers must be provided an unpaid 30-minute meal or rest break after six hours of continuous work. Failure to provide this break is considered a violation of the law.

However, meal or rest breaks are not mandated for workers who have regular rest opportunities or job duties requiring more breaks than usual, like employees in food or beverage businesses and security guards.

According to state regulations, nursing employees must be provided reasonable accommodations to breastfeed and/or express milk at the workplace. 

Employers can designate a private room (that is not a toilet), free from intrusion, where employees can express milk. Employees can store the expressed milk in a personal cooler for future use. Furthermore, companies can choose to provide hospital-grade equipment to express milk more efficiently. 

Note that additional break time is not required; a nursing employee’s regular breaks, i.e. rest and meal periods, should suffice for this purpose. If more time is required, employees can be allowed to come early or stay late after work.

Most leave benefits in Tenessee are only afforded to public employees. The following is a brief overview of the benefits available:

• Family and Medical Leave: The federal Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to provide eligible employees in Tennessee with unpaid leave for certain medical or family-related reasons. This may include caring for a newborn child, adopting or fostering a child, caring for an immediate family member with a serious health condition, or having a serious health condition themselves. To be eligible for FMLA, employees must have worked for their employer for at least 12 months and worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous year.
• Parental Leave: State law allows full-time employees up to four months of leave for reasons including pregnancy, adoption, childbirth, or nursing of a child (whichever is applicable). To be eligible for parental leave an employee must be working for an employer with 100 or more employees in a single location for at least 12 months consecutively. Parental leave offers job protection only if the employee informs their employer about their leave details three months prior to the date of departure.
• Jury Duty Leave: If summoned to jury duty in Tennessee, an employee is entitled to time off from work only if the service exceeds three hours. The employee will still receive regular compensation for the time spent on jury duty, but their employer may deduct jury fees from their payment. Note that employers with less than five employees are not required to compensate their employees for jury service.
• Voting Leave: Every eligible voter in Tennesee has the right to a maximum of three hours of voting leave to vote. However, if an employee’s shift commences three or more hours after the opening of the polling station or ends three or more hours before the closing of polling, they will not be entitled to a voting leave of absence. To avail voting leave, employees are required to inform their employer before noon a day before election day.
• Annual Leave: Employees in Tennessee who work at least 1,600 hours in a year are entitled to paid leave based on their accrued annual leave. The amount of annual leave an employee can earn per month depends on their years of service, with a maximum of 42 days per year for those with over 20 years of service. Full-time employees who have been employed for more than 6 months and part-time or seasonal employees who meet the hour requirement are eligible for annual leave. Employees can use their accrued annual leave for any reason they choose.
• Sick Leave: Eligible full-time employees can accumulate one sick leave day every month, as long as they have worked a minimum of 37.5 hours weekly or 7.5 hours daily. Sick leave accrual begins within the first month of the worker’s employment.

When it comes to private employers, they are not obligated to provide the following leaves, although it is recommended they do:

For 2025, the state holiday ‘Columbus Day’ has been replaced by the ‘Friday after Thanksgiving.’ Moreover, the Governor of Tennessee has appointed public offices an additional day off for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

The following is a complete list of public holidays observed in Tennessee in 2025-2026:

Any person under the age of 18 is considered a minor in Tennessee and is protected by state child labor laws. The minimum age of employment for a minor is 14. 

Work Permits for Minors in Tennessee

Employers in Tennessee are not required to obtain a work permit to employ a minor in their workplace. However, they must retain the minor’s proof of age with a copy of the minor’s birth certificate or any other legal document that proves the minor’s age. 

Working hours for minors in Tennessee vary based on the minor’s age. Minors aged 14 and 15 cannot work during school hours as school attendance is mandatory. 

However, minors aged 16 and 17 can work during school hours if they have already graduated high school, possess a GED diploma, or work in a school experience program. The following is an outline of work-hour scheduling requirements for minors as per Tennessee child labor laws:

When School is in Session

• Minors aged 14 and 15: Can work three hours on a school day and eight hours on a non-school day, with a weekly total of 18 hours. Work hours can only be scheduled between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. outside of school hours. 
• Minors aged 16 and 17: No daily and weekly work hour limitations. Work hours can be scheduled between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight for a maximum of three nights weekly only with parental or guardian consent. 

During Summer Break

• Minors aged 14 and 15: Can work eight hours daily, with a weekly maximum of 40 hours. Work hours can be scheduled between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
• Minors aged 16 and 17: No daily and weekly work hour limitations. 

Breaks for Minors in Tennessee

Minors are entitled to a 30-minute break if they are scheduled to work six consecutive hours. This break is unpaid and must not be scheduled before or during the first hour of a minor’s workday.

Under the Tennessee Child Labor Act, minors aged under 18 are strictly prohibited from employment in the following:

Establishments that serve alcohol and other intoxicating drinks, with monthly gross receipts from the sale of such beverages exceeding 25% of the location’s total gross receipts may only employ minors aged 16 and 17.