Tennessee Salaried Employee Laws: Overtime, Deductions, and Breaks

Tennessee salaried employee laws are mostly federal. The state has no minimum wage and no comprehensive wage-and-hour code, so the Fair Labor Standards Act controls whether you get overtime, when your paycheck can be docked, and what makes a salaried worker “exempt.” Tennessee Code fills in the rest: how often you must be paid, the 30-minute meal break, the deadline for your final check, and how commissions are handled when you leave.

Are You Exempt From Overtime

Being paid a salary does not automatically mean you lose the right to overtime. Non-exempt salaried workers must still receive one and one-half times their regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.¹ To classify you as exempt, an employer has to satisfy three separate tests. Fail any one, and you are entitled to overtime regardless of your title.

Salary Basis

You must receive a fixed, predetermined amount each pay period that does not fluctuate based on how many hours you put in or the quality of your work.² If your check shrinks whenever a week runs short or you leave early, you are probably not being paid on a salary basis in the legal sense.

Salary Level

You must earn at least $684 per week, or $35,568 per year. A 2024 Department of Labor rule tried to raise that number to $844 per week, but a federal court in Texas vacated the rule in November 2024, so the 2019 threshold is what the Department is enforcing.³ Up to 10 percent of the $684 can come from nondiscretionary bonuses, incentives, or commissions paid at least annually.² Below that number, you get overtime no matter what you do.

Duties

The salary alone is not enough. Your primary duties must fit one of the recognized white-collar categories. The executive exemption requires that you manage the business or a recognized department, regularly direct at least two other employees, and have real authority over hiring and firing decisions.⁴ The administrative exemption covers non-manual office work directly tied to business operations, with independent judgment on significant matters. The professional exemption applies to roles that require advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning.

Two narrower paths exist. Highly compensated employees making at least $107,432 per year in total pay (including at least $684 per week on a salary basis) only have to perform one duty from the executive, administrative, or professional lists.³ Computer professionals qualify if they earn at least $27.63 per hour or meet the $684 weekly threshold and their work centers on designing, developing, testing, or analyzing systems and programs.⁵

This is where most misclassification happens. Giving you the title “manager” does not make you exempt. If you spend most of your day doing the same work as the people you supposedly supervise, the reality of your duties controls, not the title. The burden of proving an exemption is on the employer.

How Salary Deductions Work

The value of a salary is that it’s predictable. Federal law protects that predictability by sharply limiting when an employer can dock an exempt worker’s pay. If your employer routinely reduces your salary based on hours or output, that practice can wipe out the exemption entirely, exposing them to back-overtime claims for every worker in the same job.

Permitted deductions from an exempt salary are narrow:

Full-day personal absences. If you miss one or more complete days for personal reasons unrelated to illness, the employer may deduct a full day’s pay for each day missed. Partial-day personal absences cannot be deducted.²
Full-day sick leave under a real benefits plan. Deductions for sick days are allowed only when the employer has a genuine plan compensating for lost salary, such as PTO or short-term disability.⁶
Disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days for violating a written workplace conduct policy that is applied consistently.
FMLA leave, including partial-day deductions for intermittent or reduced-schedule leave.⁶

Federal regulations give employers a safety net. A clearly communicated written policy that prohibits improper deductions, includes a complaint mechanism, provides prompt reimbursement when a mistake is discovered, and reflects a good-faith commitment to future compliance lets the employer avoid losing the exemption over an isolated error.² If your employer has one, look for it in the handbook.

Salaried workers who are not exempt get different treatment. Employers can deduct for uniforms or equipment, but the deduction cannot drop your effective hourly rate below the federal minimum wage of $7.25, and it cannot cut into overtime you’ve already earned.⁷ Voluntary wage assignments to a third party must be authorized by you in writing.

When You Have to Be Paid

Tennessee Code 50-2-103 sets the payday rules for private employers, and the rules apply only to businesses with five or more employees.⁸ Wages must be paid at least once a month. If your employer pays monthly, all wages earned before the first of the month must be paid by the fifth of the following month.

Employers on a semi-monthly cycle follow a split schedule: wages earned before the first of the month are due by the twentieth, and wages earned before the sixteenth are due by the fifth of the next month.⁸ Employers must also post a notice in at least two visible spots where employees see it going to or from work, listing the regular paydays. If you have never seen that notice, your employer is out of compliance.

Meal Breaks for Salaried Workers

Tennessee requires a 30-minute unpaid meal break for any employee scheduled to work six consecutive hours, and the statute does not exempt salaried workers.⁸ The break cannot be scheduled during or before the first hour of your shift.

Workplaces that naturally provide ample chances to rest or eat during the day are excepted, with food service workers and security guards named as examples. Tipped food service employees may waive the break in writing, but the waiver has to be knowing and voluntary, the employer must have a written policy posted in the workplace explaining the waiver process, and either side can rescind it with seven days’ notice.⁹ No employer may coerce a waiver. Tennessee law does not require any additional paid or unpaid breaks beyond that single 30-minute meal.

Final Paycheck, Unused Vacation, and Commissions

When you leave a Tennessee job, whether you quit or are fired, your employer must pay all earned wages no later than the next regular payday or 21 days after your last day, whichever comes later.⁸ Read the “whichever comes later” carefully: if your payday falls five days after you leave but the 21 days have not run, the employer gets the full 21.

Tennessee does not require employers to offer vacation, paid or unpaid, and it does not require unused vacation to be paid out at termination unless the employer’s own written policy or a labor agreement says so.¹⁰ If such a policy exists, the payout becomes part of your final wages under the same deadline. Read the handbook before assuming anything.

Commissions get their own statute. Under Tennessee Code 47-50-114, any commission already earned at termination must be paid within 14 days of your last day. Commissions that come due after you leave must be paid within 14 days of when they come due. Without a written contract, all commissions owed are due within 14 days of termination. An employer that acts in bad faith can owe up to three times the amount plus attorney’s fees, and these protections cannot be waived by contract.¹¹

At-Will Employment and Its Limits

Tennessee is an at-will state. Your employer can terminate you at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all, and you can quit the same way.¹² Salaried status changes none of that. There is no requirement of cause, progressive discipline, or advance notice.

The exceptions are narrow but important. An employer cannot fire you for serving on a jury, voting, filing a workers’ compensation claim, being called to military service, exercising your right to organize, or having your wages garnished.¹² Discrimination based on race, sex, age, religion, national origin, or disability is prohibited. Tennessee’s Whistleblower Law at Tennessee Code 50-1-304 protects employees who report illegal activity from retaliation. Outside these categories, the at-will rule holds.

If Your Employer Breaks the Rules

The FLSA penalty structure is designed to bite. An employer that fails to pay required overtime owes the full amount of unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the bill.¹³ Claims can reach back two years, or three years if the violation was willful. A prevailing employee can also recover attorney’s fees and court costs.

For state-law issues, including pay frequency, meal breaks, and final-paycheck timing, you can file a wage complaint with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which investigates potential violations.⁹ For federal overtime and minimum wage claims, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division handles enforcement and can pursue back wages on your behalf. A private lawsuit is also an option, but the federal statute of limitations makes acting quickly important.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.100 – General Rule for Executive Employees
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Overtime Security Advisor – Are Any Deductions Allowed
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 16 – Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
8
Justia. Tennessee Code 50-2-103 – Payment of Employees in Private Employments
9
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Wages, Fringe Benefits, Paychecks and Breaks
10
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Can My Employer Withhold My Earned Vacation Pay Upon Termination
11
Justia. Tennessee Code 47-50-114 – Sales Representatives – Commissions
12
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Employee Rights
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties