Does Tennessee require paid family or sick leave in 2026?
No paid programme. Tennessee is not a federal-only state: its Maternity Leave Act gives eligible employees up to 4 months of unpaid, job-protected leave at employers with 100 or more full-time staff. Federal FMLA sits underneath, and the rest is the policy you write.
· Tennessee, United States guide
Illustration · Nashville, Tennessee
Tennessee mandates no paid family leave and no paid sick leave. There is no state programme, no payroll withholding line, and no claim portal. What it does have is a job-protected unpaid floor that catches large employers off guard: the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act (Tenn. Code Ann. §4-21-408), which reaches up to 4 months at employers with 100 or more full-time employees.
Below that, federal FMLA is the next floor at 50 employees, PWFA accommodation applies at 15 employees, and USERRA and jury-duty rules apply at any size. Everything paid, parental pay, paid sick days, wage replacement, is yours to design, and that design is what a candidate compares against a coastal offer. See how leave costs stack against total employment costs in our Employer Cost Calculator.
Does Tennessee require family or maternity leave?
There is no paid programme, but there is a state leave law. Tennessee has no state paid family leave fund, yet the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act (Tenn. Code Ann. §4-21-408) gives eligible employees up to 4 months of unpaid, job-protected leave for pregnancy, childbirth, adoption and nursing.
It applies at employers with 100 or more full-time employees, once an employee has completed 12 consecutive months of full-time service. That is the detail that makes Tennessee different from a pure federal-floor state, and the detail that large employers routinely miss when they read "no paid leave" and stop there.
Around a dozen states plus Washington DC run mandatory paid-family-leave programmes funded by payroll contributions. Tennessee is not one of them, so there is no state PFL line on a Tennessee payslip, no contribution rate, and no benefit claim to file. Compare the picture for your other Southern hires in our Kentucky paid family and sick leave guide and the Georgia paid family and sick leave guide, both of which also have no state paid programme.
What does exist is unpaid job protection that runs far longer than the federal floor. The Tennessee Maternity Leave Act protects up to 4 months for a new parent at a 100-plus-employee employer, against FMLA's 12 weeks. The leave is unpaid by statute, so whatever paid parental pay an employee receives during it is still the leave the employer chose to write into the offer. Job protection is the floor; pay is the competitive decision. Review Tennessee wage and overtime rules alongside your leave policy so the total package is consistent.
Does Tennessee require paid sick leave?
No. Tennessee has no state paid sick leave law, and no Tennessee city is permitted to create one.
Tennessee preempts local wage and benefit mandates statewide, so a city or county cannot require private employers to provide paid sick days, paid leave, or a minimum wage above the federal floor. No Tennessee municipality enforces a paid-sick-leave ordinance. The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development administers no state sick-leave programme.
The result is a settled, statewide answer: paid sick days at a Tennessee job are whatever the offer letter says. There is no accrual rule to track, no carry-over cap, and no city-by-city map to maintain. A single national sick-leave policy applies cleanly in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and every rural county alike.
The practical risk is competitive, not legal. A remote-first employer offering 8 to 10 paid sick days inside a single PTO bank reads very differently to a candidate than a silent offer letter. In a state that mandates nothing on the sick-leave side, the policy is the differentiator. See how Tennessee's position compares with your other US hires on our United States hiring overview.
What does federal FMLA give Tennessee employees?
Federal FMLA gives eligible Tennessee employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per 12-month period, with group health coverage continued at the employer's normal contribution.
It applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. The employee qualifies after 12 months of tenure and 1,250 hours worked in the prior year.
FMLA is the federal floor for unpaid, job-protected leave. In Tennessee it sits alongside the state Maternity Leave Act rather than under nothing, so you face both statutes at a 100-plus-employee Tennessee site. The 50-employee threshold counts your entire US workforce, not just Tennessee staff, so a multi-state employer crosses it faster than headcount in any one state suggests.
Source: US Department of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act
Where both laws apply, they run concurrently rather than stacking: FMLA's 12 weeks count toward the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act's 4 months, and the state law reaches further only because 4 months is longer than 12 weeks. Hire 30 Tennessee staff and 25 in another state and you cross the 50-employee FMLA line even though neither state alone reaches it. Cross-check your Tennessee termination and at-will obligations at the same time, since at-will rights do not override leave reinstatement duties.
| FMLA element | Federal rule |
|---|---|
| Employer threshold | 50+ employees within 75 miles, 20+ weeks in the current or prior year |
| Employee eligibility | 12 months employed and 1,250 hours worked in the prior 12 months |
| Standard leave | 12 weeks unpaid, job protected, per 12-month period |
| Military caregiver leave | 26 weeks in a single 12-month period |
| Pay during leave | None; FMLA is unpaid by statute |
FMLA gives no wage replacement of its own. Below 50 employees, or for a worker in their first 12 months, there is no FMLA right at all, and below 100 full-time employees there is no Tennessee Maternity Leave Act right either. Use our Employer Cost Calculator to see how statutory costs land before you make your first Tennessee offer.
What pregnancy and disability protections apply in Tennessee?
Federal law applies and Tennessee tracks it. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) requires reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions at any employer with 15 or more employees, enforced by the EEOC.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act apply at the same 15-employee threshold, and the PUMP Act gives nursing employees break time and a private space at almost every employer.
Between 15 and 50 employees there is a real gap. PWFA covers accommodation, such as modified duties, schedule changes, time off for appointments and lactation breaks, but neither FMLA nor the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act applies yet, so no statute gives the worker a job hold for the birth itself.
That gap is the decision your offer letter has to make explicit. The most retention-critical voluntary line for a Tennessee hire is paid parental pay, because the state Maternity Leave Act job hold does not arrive until 100 full-time employees, FMLA at 50, and PWFA accommodation at 15 leave a wide space that only a written policy, and the pay attached to it, can fill. See how other Southern states handle the same gap in our Georgia paid family and sick leave guide.
Tennessee employers under the thresholds, military leave and jury duty
Below 50 employees there is no FMLA, and below 100 full-time employees there is no Tennessee Maternity Leave Act, with three narrow exceptions that apply at any size: PWFA accommodation at 15 employees, USERRA reemployment for service members, and jury-duty protection.
USERRA protects a service member's civilian job for up to five years of cumulative service and reinstates them on the escalator principle. Tennessee law bars firing or threatening an employee for answering a jury summons.
USERRA reinstates a returning service member to the position they would have reached had they not been called up, not simply the job they left. Health-plan continuation runs alongside, and the protection applies regardless of company size.
For most small Tennessee employers this is the entire mandatory picture: accommodate pregnancy at 15 employees, reinstate service members, and protect jury service. Everything beyond that, including the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act's 4-month job hold that arrives at 100 full-time employees and the 26-week military caregiver entitlement that arrives with FMLA at 50 employees, is either a threshold you grow into or a voluntary benefit you choose. Review your Tennessee state tax and unemployment insurance obligations alongside your leave design so payroll set-up is complete from day one.
How Teamed runs Tennessee leave end to end
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Tennessee for $599 per employee per month flat, with zero FX mark-up. You design the leave package; we administer it and track every statutory trigger for you.
FMLA eligibility, the 50-employee threshold measured across your whole US payroll, the Tennessee Maternity Leave Act at 100 full-time employees, PWFA accommodation logging, USERRA reinstatement and jury-duty pay continuation all run on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Tennessee hires and know the Maternity Leave Act, FMLA, PWFA and USERRA stack by heart. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue. There is no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost (FICA, FUTA, SUTA, workers' compensation) passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll and entity graduation all live on one platform. A Tennessee contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity when the model no longer fits, without switching systems. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the economics shift. The employer of record model is the right call for a first Tennessee hire, until it isn't.
Tennessee is the state people get wrong. They read no state paid family leave, no state paid sick leave, and assume federal FMLA is the whole story. It is not. The Tennessee Maternity Leave Act gives a new parent up to four months of job-protected leave at any employer with 100 or more full-time staff, longer than FMLA, and the two run concurrently where both apply. Miss it and a large employer denies leave it was legally required to give.
Tennessee runs no paid leave fund of its own, so people assume federal FMLA is the whole floor.
It is not. The state Maternity Leave Act reaches four months of unpaid job protection at 100 full-time employees.
Get the threshold right, then design the pay. In Tennessee the offer letter is still the leave policy.
