Paid Sick Leave in Tennessee: Who Qualifies and How Much You Earn

Tennessee does not have a state law that requires private employers to provide paid sick leave. There is no statewide accrual rate, no minimum number of hours you earn per pay period, and no cap set by the state, because the underlying mandate simply does not exist. Whether you get paid time off when you are sick depends almost entirely on your employer's own policy, your employment contract, or a collective bargaining agreement. On top of that, Tennessee law goes a step further than most states: it bars cities and counties from creating their own local paid-sick-leave requirements, so you cannot rely on a city ordinance to fill the gap either.

The baseline: no Tennessee paid sick leave mandate

Unlike states such as California, New York, or Colorado, which have adopted earned-sick-time laws, Tennessee has not enacted any statute requiring employers to provide paid (or even unpaid) sick days to private-sector workers. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development says so in its own words: "There is no Tennessee law that regulates fringe benefits. Company policy is the determining factor." (TDLWD, Wages & Breaks.) This means several things in practice:

• An employer in Tennessee can legally offer zero paid sick days.
• If your employer does offer sick leave or paid time off (PTO), the terms of that benefit are set by the employer, not by the state.
• There is no state-imposed accrual formula (for example, "one hour for every 30 hours worked") and no statutory annual cap, because the state does not regulate the benefit at all.
• There is no Tennessee agency that enforces a sick-leave minimum, because there is no minimum to enforce.

Because Tennessee also has no state minimum wage law of its own, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets the wage floor at $7.25 per hour (29 U.S.C. § 206(a)(1)(C)). The FLSA does not require paid sick leave, paid vacation, or any paid time off for private employers. So at both the state and the core federal level, paid sick leave for most Tennessee workers is a voluntary benefit, not a legal entitlement.

Why local ordinances will not help

In many states without a statewide mandate, workers still gain protections because a city or county passes its own paid-sick-leave ordinance. Tennessee has closed that door, and we can point you to the exact law. In 2013 the General Assembly passed HB501/SB35, signed as Public Chapter 91, which rewrote Tenn. Code Ann. § 7-51-1802(b) to read:

"No local government shall by ordinance, resolution, contract or any other means authorize or mandate, as a condition of a doing business within the jurisdictional boundaries of a local government or contracting with a local government, that employers establish a leave policy that deviates from, modifies, supplements, adds to, changes, or varies in any manner from state statutorily imposed or recognized requirements such as those authorized pursuant to § 4-21-408." (Full text of the enacted act.)

The same act added a new section to Title 50, Chapter 2, barring a local government from requiring a private employer to pay more than the federal or state minimum wage, and added § 7-51-1802(c), which bars local health-insurance mandates.

This preemption is current law, not a rule that is about to change. Two attempts to roll it back failed: a 2021 bill to delete subsection (b) entirely died, and a 2023 bill (HB278/SB166) to narrow it failed in the Senate State and Local Government Committee on a 2–7 vote (bill history).

The practical effect: if you work for a private employer in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, or Chattanooga, your city cannot legally force that employer to give you paid sick time.

But there are two carve-outs the rule does not reach, and one of them may be yours:

• City and county employees are exempt. Section 7-51-1802(d) says plainly: "Subsections (a), (b) and (c) shall not apply with respect to employees of a local government." A Tennessee city or county remains free to give its own workforce paid sick leave, paid parental leave, and health benefits. If you work for the city, the county, or a local agency, do not assume this preemption applies to you — check your employer's personnel policy.
• Federal-contract exception. Under § 7-51-1802(b)(1)(B), the leave bar does not apply where the local government is contracting with the federal government and the federal requirements differ from state law.

Who actually gets paid sick leave in Tennessee

Even without a mandate, many Tennessee workers do receive paid sick leave. It typically comes from one of these sources:

• Employer policy. Most larger employers and many mid-size companies voluntarily offer paid sick days or a combined PTO bank to stay competitive. Once an employer promises this benefit in a handbook or policy, that promise can be enforceable, and the employer must follow its own stated terms.
• Employment contracts and union agreements. If you have a written contract or are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the leave terms in that document control.
• Public employees. Tennessee state employees accrue sick leave under state personnel rules, and, as explained above, cities and counties may grant paid leave to their own employees. These public-sector rules do not apply to private employers.
• Federal contractor employees. Workers on certain federal contracts are covered by Executive Order 13706, which requires covered contractors to let employees accrue "not less than 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked" on a covered contract, with accrual capped at no less than 56 hours per year (29 C.F.R. § 13.5). This rule is still in force. It is a federal contractor rule, not a Tennessee rule, and it applies only to qualifying contracts.

How paid sick leave interacts with PTO

Many Tennessee employers fold sick time into a single paid-time-off bank rather than tracking "sick days" separately. Because the state does not regulate the benefit, the employer decides how PTO accrues, whether it carries over year to year, and whether unused time is paid out at separation.

On the payout question, TDLWD's answer is direct: unused PTO must be paid at separation only "[u]nless the employer's policy or its labor agreement specifically requires compensation of unused fringe benefits to an employee upon his or her separation of employment." There is no general Tennessee statute forcing employers to cash out unused vacation or PTO. If a handbook says accrued PTO is paid on termination, that promise is what you enforce; if the policy clearly says unused time is forfeited, that policy can govern. Read your policy carefully and keep a copy, because the written terms are what you can enforce.

Tennessee's four-month leave law for adoption, pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing

Tennessee has one significant leave statute of its own, and it is broader than most people realize. Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-21-408 — re-enacted word for word in 2025 by Public Chapter 471 — grants up to four months of leave for adoption, pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing an infant. It is not a pregnancy-only law: an adoptive parent is squarely covered, and for adoption the four-month period begins when you receive custody of the child.

Who is covered:

• You must have worked for the same employer for at least 12 consecutive months as a full-time employee.
• The statute does not apply to an employer with fewer than 100 full-time employees on a permanent basis at the job site or location (§ 4-21-408(d)(2)).
• The leave "may be with or without pay at the discretion of the employer" — so this statute protects your job, not your paycheck.

The notice condition is the part that costs people their rights. Your right to be restored to your previous or a similar position — with the same status, pay, length-of-service credit, and seniority — is conditioned on giving your employer three months' advance notice of your anticipated departure date, the length of your leave, and your intention to return to full-time work. Two weeks' notice does not satisfy the statute.

Two express excuses protect you if three months' notice was impossible. Do not assume you have lost the leave. Under § 4-21-408(b)(2) and (b)(3), you do not forfeit your rights if you were prevented from giving three months' notice because:

• a medical emergency required your leave to begin earlier than anticipated; or
• you received notice of the adoption less than three months in advance.

The statute also gives the employer some defenses: it is not liable for failing to reinstate you if your position was so unique it could not be filled temporarily after reasonable efforts, or if you used the leave to pursue other jobs or to work for another employer. If the employer decides you will not be reinstated on one of those grounds, it must notify you. Employers covered by the section must also include it in any employee handbook they publish.

How FMLA fits in

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is the main legal protection for serious illness in Tennessee, but it is unpaid. FMLA gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave in a 12-month period for their own serious health condition, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, or for the birth or placement of a child. To be eligible you generally must (29 C.F.R. § 825.110):

• Work at a worksite where the employer employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles;
• Have been employed by that employer for at least 12 months (which need not be consecutive); and
• Have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months.

FMLA protects your job, but it does not pay your wages. Employers may require, or you may choose, to use accrued paid sick leave or PTO during FMLA leave so that you receive pay for some or all of the time off. FMLA and Tennessee's § 4-21-408 leave can both apply to the same worker; where they overlap, the more generous protection is the one that matters to you.

How to enforce your rights and where to verify

If your employer promised paid sick leave or PTO and then refused to honor it, your claim is generally a contract or wage matter rather than a sick-leave violation, because there is no sick-leave statute to invoke. Steps to take:

• Get the written policy. Save the employee handbook, offer letter, or any email promising the benefit.
• Document your accrued balance, your requests, and the employer's response.
• Know the deadline for your final pay. Tennessee requires that an employee who quits or is discharged be paid all earned wages "no later than the next regular pay day following the date of dismissal or voluntary leaving, or twenty-one (21) days following the date of discharge or voluntary leaving, whichever occurs last." If your employer's policy promised a PTO payout, that is the date by which it should reach you — and TDLWD will not act on a complaint before that period runs.
• File a wage claim. After that deadline passes, you can file with TDLWD's Labor Standards Unit using its wage claim process, or call 844-224-5818 (TDLWD, Wages & Breaks). You can also consult a Tennessee employment attorney about a breach-of-contract or unpaid-wages claim.
• For a § 4-21-408 leave violation, that statute sits inside the Tennessee Human Rights Act. Under the 2025 act, Tennessee's civil-rights enforcement now runs through the Attorney General's Civil Rights Enforcement Division, which investigates employment discrimination complaints.
• For FMLA issues, the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division enforces the law and accepts complaints.

This article is general information, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and statutes change; before you act, confirm the current text with the official sources linked above, and talk to a Tennessee employment lawyer about your specific situation.

Official Tennessee Sources

This page is based on Tennessee employment law. Rules and figures change — verify the current details directly with the official Tennessee sources below. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

• Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development — official Tennessee agency.
• How to Begin a Wage Claim - Tennessee Labor Standards Unit

Federal law and local ordinances may also apply. Federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act set a national floor, and your city or county may add protections (such as a higher local minimum wage or paid sick leave). Check both alongside Tennessee state law.