AbsentEase
Tennessee sick leave law & call-off rules
Tennessee has no sick leave mandate — but don't import your Georgia or Florida handbook, because Tennessee is the outlier of the no-mandate South. State law requires meal breaks for adults, paid voting leave, and paid jury duty at employers with five or more people. An attendance and timekeeping policy has to get those three right. Here is what applies in 2026.
Tennessee at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | None — local mandates preempted since 2013 |
|---|---|
| Meal breaks | Required — 30 unpaid minutes for shifts of 6+ consecutive hours (5+ employees), unless the nature of the business already affords ample break opportunity |
| Voting leave | Paid — up to 3 hours, requested by noon the day before |
| Jury duty | Paid — regular wages less jury fees, at 5+ employees |
| Employment relationship | At-will, with retaliatory-discharge protection for workers' comp claims |
| PTO payout at termination | Only if your policy or agreement provides it (T.C.A. 50-2-103) |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday or 21 days, whichever is later |
Is paid sick leave required in Tennessee?
No. Tennessee doesn't require private employers to provide sick leave, and T.C.A. 7-51-1802 has preempted local leave mandates since 2013. Sick leave is your written policy plus the federal floor — but the state's break, voting, and jury rules below are mandatory.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
FLSA overtime and attendance bonuses
A cash bonus promised in advance for good attendance counts as wages under federal overtime law. It has to be added into the regular rate for the weeks it covers, so any of those weeks over 40 hours owes extra overtime on the bonus, usually recalculated after the bonus is paid. State overtime law can add to this, but can't go below it. See how attendance bonuses change overtime pay.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Tennessee
Tennessee is at-will, and attendance discipline — including for no-call no-shows — is broadly enforceable. State-specific caution comes from two directions. First, Tennessee courts recognize retaliatory discharge for workers' compensation claims (Clanton v. Cain-Sloan), so comp-related absences need to be excluded from points before discipline ever posts. Second, the state's paid voting and jury leave are protected absences — dinging them under an attendance policy violates the statutes that grant them. Wage disputes go to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and they resolve on records: the policy, the absence log, the consistency of enforcement. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system generates that log as a byproduct of employees just texting in.
After a no call, no show termination in Tennessee
| Does Tennessee law define job abandonment? | No statute or regulation defines job abandonment; it is set by employer policy, although for unemployment purposes 'misconduct' expressly includes deliberate disregard of a written attendance policy when the discharge complies with that policy (Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-7-303(b)(3)(A)(iv), added by 2012 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 1050, effective Sept. 1, 2012). (Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-7-303(a)(1), (a)(2), (b)(3)(A)) |
|---|---|
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a discharge | An employee who is discharged must be paid in full all wages or salary earned no later than the next regular payday following the date of dismissal or 21 days following the date of discharge, whichever occurs last; for employees paid on a piece-work or commission basis, compensation is due by the last day of the month following the discharge (for wages earned on or after July 1, 2026). (Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-2-103(g), as amended by 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 617, § 2) |
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a resignation | An employee who voluntarily leaves (the statute does not distinguish quitting with notice from quitting without notice) must be paid in full no later than the next regular payday following the date of voluntary leaving or 21 days following that date, whichever occurs last, with the same piece-work/commission carve-out as for discharge. (Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-2-103(g), as amended by 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 617, § 2) |
| Accrued PTO at separation | No state requirement; owed only if your written policy promises it. Final wages must include unused vacation pay or other compensatory time only when the employer's policy or labor agreement specifically provides for that payment; the Attorney General reads § 50-2-103(a)(3) as creating no payout duty absent such a policy, and the subdivision states it does not require employers to offer vacation or adopt written vacation policies. (Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-2-103(a)(3); Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. No. 06-169 (Nov. 2006)) |
| Unemployment claims | A claimant is disqualified for leaving the most recent work voluntarily without good cause connected with the work (§ 50-7-303(a)(1)) or for discharge for misconduct connected with the work (§ 50-7-303(a)(2)); the statutory misconduct list includes conscious disregard of the employer's interests, deliberate disregard of a written attendance policy, and violation of an employer rule the claimant knew or should have known. |
If a state agency later treats a "resignation" as a discharge, the discharge deadline governs, so pay by the earlier of the two when in doubt. Document each step with the no call, no show write-up and termination letter templates, which fill in Tennessee's final-pay rule.
Write a no call, no show policy that fits Tennessee
Start from our no call, no show policy guide and free template, or let the generator turn nine quick questions into a signature-ready policy with Tennessee already selected so the protected-leave section covers the federal FMLA and ADA rules that still apply here.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Final pay due by the next regular payday or 21 days after discharge, whichever occurs later; piece-work or commission pay earned on or after July 1, 2026 is due by the last day of the following month | T.C.A. 50-2-103(g), as amended by 2026 Pub. Ch. 617 |
| Employee quits | Same rule — next payday or 21 days, whichever is later | T.C.A. 50-2-103(g) |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Payout owed only if the policy or labor agreement provides for it — the statute defers to your written terms | T.C.A. 50-2-103(a)(3) |
| Policy silent on payout | No payout owed — but write it down anyway; ambiguity breeds claims | — |
Tennessee's 21-day rule is unusually forgiving — but the payout question still turns entirely on your written policy. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Tennessee employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Meal break | Yes | 30 unpaid minutes for 6+ consecutive scheduled hours, not in the first hour (5+ employees); tipped servers may waive in writing; not required where the nature of the business provides ample opportunity to take a break (T.C.A. 50-2-103(h)) |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Up to 3 hours if requested by noon the day before; not owed if the shift leaves 3+ free hours while polls are open (T.C.A. 2-1-106) |
| Jury duty | Yes — paid | Employers with 5+ employees pay regular wages minus jury fees; firing over jury service is prohibited (T.C.A. 22-4-106) |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Tennessee National Guard protections |
| Sick leave | No | Whatever your written policy provides |
The Tennessee employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.