Employees everywhere need to take the occasional leave of absence from work, whether to bond with a new child, manage a major health condition, care for a loved one, or handle another one of life’s big transitions. The question, then, isn’t if an employee will need to take leave at some point—it’s how.
If you employ people in Tennessee, this guide is for you. We’ll explain which leave laws apply to Tennessee-based employees, when, and how to stay compliant.
Does Tennessee provide paid family leave?
Tennessee doesn’t have a state-mandated paid family or medical leave (PFML) program available to private-sector employees (aka the majority of the state’s working population). Instead, the state provides paid parental leave only to eligible public-sector workers, like public university staff and people in state government roles.
In Tennessee, state workers can take up to six weeks of parental leave—paid at 100% of their regular pay—after a child’s birth or placement for adoption. To qualify for parental leave, employees need to have been employed by the state for at least 12 consecutive months in a full-time role.
Nashville also has its own Paid Family Leave policy for eligible city and municipal workers. Those workers get up to 30 workdays (or six weeks) of paid leave—at 100% pay—to bond with a new child or care for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition. Full-time employees are eligible once they’ve reached six months of service.
Tennessee’s parental leave law for large employers
Employers with 100 or more full-time workers at any job site are subject to Tennessee’s parental leave law. Under the law, eligible employees can take up to four months of leave for pregnancy, childbirth, nursing, or adoption. The leave can be paid or unpaid; it’s up to the individual employer to decide.
To be eligible, a worker has to have been employed for 12 months and give at least three full months of advance notice for the leave (with exceptions for emergencies).
Sick leave in Tennessee
Tennessee doesn’t require employers to offer any kind of sick leave. Each business’s sick leave policy is up to them. If employees in Tennessee need time off for medical reasons, they have to either:
Take employer-provided paid time off or
Apply for federal leave.
How does federal leave work in Tennessee?
In Tennessee, some employees will qualify for federal leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA only applies to employers with 50 or more employees working within a 75-mile radius. Those covered employers are obligated to give eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for certain life events.
Qualifying leave types
Parental leave: Bonding with a newborn, adopted, or fostered child
Caregiving leave: Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition
Medical leave: Managing a serious personal health condition
Military exigency leave: Managing affairs when a spouse, child, or parent is on or called to active duty
Leave eligibility requirements
To be eligible for leave, an employee has to:
Work for their employer for at least 12 months, consecutively or non-consecutively
Work at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before leave begins
Work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles
Your employer responsibilities under FMLA
Covered FMLA employers have some work to do before, during, and after an employee requests leave. Here’s what to expect:
Before leave
Send correct notifications
Before a single leave takes place or even gets added to the calendar, you have a critical job: to inform employees of their leave rights. That happens in three phases:
Right away: Hang an official Department of Labor (DOL) poster in your workplace that explains what FMLA is and how to qualify.
When you hire someone new: Give written notice, via email or paper, of an employee’s rights under FMLA leave.
When someone reaches FMLA eligibility: Give written notice when any employee becomes eligible for FMLA (that means they’ve reached 12 months of service and 1,250 hours of work).
It’s also crucial to answer ongoing employee questions about how FMLA leave works, when they’re required to give notice of a leave (30 days whenever possible), and how the FMLA interacts with your company’s own PTO policy.
Issue the right paperwork
When an employee requests leave, you have five business days to download, fill out, and distribute the Rights and Responsibilities Notice to them. The form covers the following:
Whether or not your employee meets FMLA eligibility requirements
The 12-month period in which your employee’s leave can take place, along with their expected leave start and return dates
Your employee’s right to job protection
Whether or not you’ll require employees to substitute PTO for FMLA leave
Your employee’s right to receive continued health insurance, and whether or not they need to continue paying health insurance premiums while on leave
Whether or not your employee needs to provide certification for the leave
After you give your employee the Rights and Responsibilities Notice, they’ll gather any extra paperwork they need, like medical certification documents, fill out the rest of the form, and then return it to you to review.
Next, you’ll review the complete set of paperwork and officially deny or approve your employee’s leave request. Remember: leave approval isn’t based on your operation’s ideal schedule or an employee’s work performance. You’re not allowed to legally deny anyone leave if they qualify for it, nor can you discriminate or retaliate against anyone for requesting leave.
You have five business days to fill out the Designation Notice to let your employee know that their requested leave qualifies as FMLA leave. The notice also reminds employees about the benefits and protections they’ll receive during leave.
During leave
Uphold your employee’s protections
When your employees take FMLA leave, they’re entitled to continued health insurance, so make sure you keep paying your portion of employer health insurance premiums.
File copies of leave documents
Save any leave-related records, including payroll receipts, employee timesheets, employee contracts, official employee requests for leave, documentation of leave start and end dates, and copies of FMLA notices.
After leave
Return employees to their roles
Your employees receive job protection under FMLA, which means they’re allowed to return to their previous role once they’re back from leave. Make sure you reinstate them to their exact position or a comparable one.
The value of paid family leave in your workplace
There are tons of benefits of paid leave—both for the people receiving it and the people providing it. Here are just a handful:
For employees
Improved physical and mental health
More financial security
Greater job and employer satisfaction
Stronger family stability
For employers
Healthier, happier employees
Higher workplace engagement and productivity
Stronger employee retention rates, lower turnover
Competitive advantage when recruiting and hiring
In Tennessee, you may not benefit from state support for leave, but you can still implement a paid leave policy that uplifts your employees. Start by looking into paid family leave products with private insurers, so you can split premiums with your employees.
You may want to go for a bare-bones plan and give your employees six weeks of paid leave, or take a cue from states like Minnesota and Delaware, and provide 12 weeks of leave at around 80% pay.
If purchasing leave insurance isn’t an option right now, there are other ways to fill in the paid leave gap in your business: increase your PTO, frontload extra sick days, or let employees take unpaid leave even if you’re not a covered FMLA employer.
Tennessee employer guides
Save these guides for compliance information and general business resources:
