What Are TN Labor Laws for Salaried Employees?

Tennessee labor laws for salaried employees come almost entirely from federal law. The state sets no minimum wage and no overtime standard of its own, so whether you’re owed overtime, how your salary can be docked, and what the Fair Labor Standards Act protects all turn on one question: are you classified as exempt or non-exempt? Tennessee adds its own rules on top for meal breaks, final paychecks, lactation accommodations, and vacation payout at termination. Everything else that matters for a salaried worker flows from the FLSA.

Are You Exempt or Non-Exempt

Every salaried worker in Tennessee falls into one of two categories. Exempt employees are not owed overtime. Non-exempt employees are owed overtime for any hours beyond 40 in a workweek, even if they’re paid a salary. Being paid a salary does not, by itself, make you exempt. To qualify, you must pass both a salary test and a duties test under 29 CFR Part 541.¹

The Salary Threshold

After a federal court vacated the Department of Labor’s 2024 update, the enforceable salary floor reverted to the 2019 rule: $684 per week, or $35,568 annually.² Earn less than that and you’re non-exempt no matter what your duties look like. A separate highly compensated employee category kicks in at $107,432 in total annual compensation and uses a lighter duties test, requiring only that you regularly perform at least one exempt duty.³

The Duties Test

Clearing the salary bar is only half the analysis. Your actual work must fit one of the recognized exemption categories:

Executive. Your primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, you regularly direct the work of at least two full-time employees or their equivalent, and you have real authority over hiring, firing, or promotion decisions.⁴
Administrative. You perform office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, and you exercise independent judgment on matters of significance.
Professional. Your role requires advanced knowledge in a field like science, engineering, or accounting, typically obtained through specialized education.
Computer employee. Systems analysts, programmers, software engineers, and similar roles qualify through either the standard salary threshold or an hourly rate of at least $27.63.⁵
Outside sales. Your primary duty is making sales or obtaining contracts away from the employer’s place of business. No minimum salary applies.

Titles carry no weight. An “assistant manager” who spends most of the week stocking shelves and ringing up customers is not doing executive work. The DOL cares about what you actually do during a typical week.

Who Can Never Be Exempt

Blue-collar workers, meaning employees whose work consists of manual labor or repetitive physical tasks, can never be classified as exempt under the white-collar exemptions no matter how high their salary. The same is true for police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and similar first responders.⁶ A salaried construction foreman well above the threshold is still owed overtime if the primary duties are hands-on physical work. This catches Tennessee employers off guard more often than it should.

Overtime When You’re Salaried and Non-Exempt

Non-exempt salaried employees are owed 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.⁷ The regular rate comes from dividing the weekly salary by the number of hours it’s meant to cover. A $1,000 weekly salary for a 40-hour week works out to $25 per hour, so overtime pays $37.50 per hour.

The math changes when the salary is intended to cover more than 40 hours. If you’re hired at $900 per week for 45 hours, your regular rate is $20 per hour, and you’re owed an additional half-time premium of $10 for each of the five overtime hours, bringing the week’s total to $950.⁸ Employers who just pay the flat salary and stop there are violating the FLSA.

One workaround to watch for: comp time. In Tennessee’s private sector, compensatory time off in place of overtime pay is illegal. Federal law reserves comp time for state and local government employees, at a rate of at least 1.5 hours of time off per overtime hour worked.⁹ A private employer offering “take Friday off instead of overtime pay” is offering something the law does not allow.

When Your Exempt Salary Can Be Docked

The rule for exempt employees is simple: if you do any work in a given week, you get your full salary for that week. Employers cannot dock your pay because you left early Wednesday or because business was slow Monday. Partial-day deductions destroy the salary basis and can wipe out the exemption entirely.¹⁰

A narrow set of deductions is permitted without breaking exempt status:

Full-day personal absences unrelated to sickness. If you take a day and a half off, only the full day can be deducted.
Full-day sick leave under a bona fide sick-leave or disability plan, both before you qualify and after the leave allowance is exhausted.
Unpaid FMLA leave, which can be prorated even for partial-day absences without endangering the exemption.¹⁰
Full-day disciplinary suspensions for violating written workplace conduct rules, and penalties for safety violations of major significance.
Offsets for jury duty pay, witness fees, or military pay you receive during those absences. The salary itself cannot be docked for the absence.

Routine improper deductions can strip exempt status from the affected employee and potentially every other employee in the same job classification, opening the employer up to back-pay liability for overtime.

Meal Breaks

Tennessee is one of the few states that requires meal breaks for adult workers. Any employee scheduled for six consecutive hours must be given a 30-minute unpaid meal break, and it cannot be placed during or before the first hour of the shift.¹¹ Otherwise, the employer picks the timing.

Two exceptions apply. Workplaces that by their nature offer ample opportunity for breaks are excluded, with food-service workers and security guards cited as examples.¹² Tipped food and beverage employees can also waive the break in writing where the employer has a posted waiver policy and neither side is coerced; either party can revoke the waiver with seven days’ notice.¹¹ Tennessee does not require any additional rest breaks beyond the 30-minute meal period.

Lactation Accommodations

Tennessee requires every employer with one or more employees to provide reasonable unpaid break time each day for expressing breast milk, running concurrently with existing break time where possible, along with reasonable efforts to provide a private space (not a bathroom) near the work area. The obligation can be avoided only where compliance would create an undue disruption to operations.¹³

Federal law under the PUMP Act adds a second layer: most employers must provide a pumping space shielded from view, free from intrusion, and functional for expressing milk, for one year after the child’s birth.¹⁴

Vacation and PTO at Termination

Tennessee does not require employers to offer vacation, and if they do, the state does not require payout of unused days at separation. Whether you receive that payout depends on your employer’s written policy or your employment contract.¹⁵ Silent policy means no legal claim to those days. If you’ve accumulated weeks of unused PTO, check your handbook or offer letter before assuming the balance converts to cash on your way out.

Your Final Paycheck

When employment ends in Tennessee, your employer must pay all earned wages no later than the next regular payday following separation, or 21 days after separation, whichever comes last.¹¹ The “whichever comes last” language is critical. If your regular payday falls five days after your last day, the employer still has until the 21-day mark. If the next regular payday is 25 days out, that later payday is the deadline.

The rule applies whether you quit or were fired.¹² If your employer’s vacation policy or a labor agreement promises payout of unused vacation or other accrued time, that amount belongs in the final paycheck.

If You Think You’ve Been Underpaid or Misclassified

Tennessee’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development routes salary, overtime, and minimum wage complaints to the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.¹⁶ The state agency also declines claims involving fewer than five employees, claims under $100, and claims against government employers, sending those to the federal DOL or to General Sessions Court in the county where the work was performed.

For FLSA claims like misclassification or unpaid overtime, the statute of limitations is two years from the date each paycheck was due, extended to three years for willful violations. A successful claim can recover the unpaid wages plus liquidated damages equal to that same amount, effectively doubling the recovery, along with attorney fees. An employer who knew or should have known the classification was wrong will have a hard time avoiding the doubled damages. Retaliating against an employee for filing a complaint or participating in an investigation is itself a violation with its own penalties.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption From Minimum Wage and Overtime Protections Under the FLSA
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17H – Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
4
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 541 – Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales 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. Fact Sheet 17I – Blue-Collar Workers and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 23 – Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 56A – Overview of the Regular Rate of Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 29 – Section 207
10
eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
11
Justia Law. Tennessee Code 50-2-103 – Payment of Employees in Private Employments
12
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Wages, Fringe Benefits, Paychecks and Breaks
13
Justia Law. Tennessee Code 50-1-305 – Breast Milk Expressing by Employee
14
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work
15
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. If an Employers Policy Provides a Paid Vacation and the Employees Employment Is Terminated, Is the Employer Required to Compensate for Any Vacation Time I Have Accrued but Not Used
16
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. How to Begin a Wage Claim