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Tennessee Employee Handbook Requirements: Four Posters, Four Different Dates
Tennessee names no written anti-harassment policy requirement and has no state minimum wage law, so the federal rate controls entirely. The four required TOSHA, unemployment, wage and child labor, and workers compensation posters carry revision dates ranging from 2016 to 2024, and all belong in a prominent place such as a break room or time-clock area.
Glance at Tennessee's four required posters and the oldest revision date, March 2016 on the safety poster, looks like a sign something is out of date. It is not. Tennessee simply has not needed to revise that particular notice since then, and knowing which posters are current versus which are merely old is exactly the kind of detail a generic handbook template gets wrong.
Four required posters, four different revision years
Tennessee requires the TOSHA Safety and Health poster (revised March 2016), the Tennessee Unemployment Insurance poster (September 2024), the Wage Regulation and Child Labor poster (May 2024) and the Workers Compensation Posting Notice (April 2018). State guidance places all four in a prominent location such as a break room or time-clock area, and Spanish versions are listed for employers with Spanish-speaking staff.
Some posters are recommended, not required
The Right to Work, Human Trafficking Hotline and Drug-Free Workplace posters appear on the same state page as the four mandatory notices, but Tennessee lists them as recommended rather than required. A handbook posting policy should distinguish the two categories rather than treat every item on the list as equally mandatory.
No state minimum wage means the federal rate controls
Like several of its neighbors, Tennessee chose not to set its own minimum wage, leaving the federal 7.25 dollar rate as the only figure that applies. That absence carries through to overtime too: Tennessee has not layered any daily threshold onto the standard 40-hour weekly trigger, so the federal calculation is the entire rule. A handbook is better off explaining the pay practice in a sentence than printing a number that might later be mistaken for a Tennessee-specific rate.
What Tennessee specifically adds, with sources
Nothing here is legal advice. Handbook obligations change, so confirm before publishing a revision.
| Minimum wage | Federal $7.25 (no state minimum wage law) |
|---|---|
| Overtime | Federal FLSA rules (weekly over 40) |
| Paid sick leave policy | Tennessee mandates none, so whatever the handbook promises becomes the enforceable rule. Silence is safer than a generous sentence nobody intended to honour. |
| Family and medical leave | No state programme. Federal FMLA applies at 50 or more employees, unpaid, and the handbook should not imply a paid state entitlement exists. |
| Harassment training | No statewide sexual-harassment-training mandate for private employers today; federal EEOC guidance still applies. [source] |
| Other state training duties | Tennessee operates an OSHA-approved State Plan (TOSHA) with its own documented safety-training requirements. [source] |
| Continuation coverage | Below the federal 20-employee COBRA threshold, Tennessee has its own continuation law, Tennessee Continuation of Terminated Group Coverage, running up to 15 months. The handbook should name it, because employees below that threshold often assume they have no coverage rights at all. [Tenn. Code Ann. section 56-7-2312 (Continuation of terminated group coverage; conversion)] |
Continuation coverage runs longer after a divorce or death
Tennessee continuation coverage generally runs the fractional policy month plus three additional months for an employee continuously insured for at least three months before termination. But for termination due to divorce or death of the insured spouse, that window extends to the fractional month plus up to fifteen additional months, a meaningfully longer runway than the general rule.
Where Tennessee employers get the handbook wrong
The most common mistake is assuming an old poster revision date means the notice is out of date and needs replacing, when the safety poster in particular has not changed since 2016. A second is treating the recommended posters as mandatory, or the reverse, missing one of the four that actually is required. Handbook decisions on accrual and final pay flow straight into payroll, and BEG's managed payroll keeps the written policy and the paycheck matched.
Federal FLSA, FMLA and EEOC standards apply in Tennessee exactly as they do elsewhere, and are covered once in the handbook fundamentals guide.
A Tennessee Handbook That Knows Which Posters Are Current.
Certified HR professionals track all four required Tennessee posters and their revision dates into a Tennessee supplement on the Expert plan, two states included, powered by isolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do the required Tennessee posters have such different dates?
The TOSHA Safety and Health poster was last revised March 2016, the Wage Regulation and Child Labor poster May 2024, the Workers Compensation Posting Notice April 2018, and the Unemployment Insurance poster September 2024. Older revision dates do not mean a poster is outdated, only that the underlying rule has not changed since.
Where should Tennessee postings physically go?
State guidance points to a prominent place such as a break room or time-clock area, not just any wall in the building. Spanish versions are listed for employers with Spanish-speaking workforces.
Are the Right to Work and Drug-Free Workplace posters required?
No. Tennessee lists the Right to Work, Human Trafficking Hotline and Drug-Free Workplace posters as recommended, not required, which is a meaningful distinction from the four posters that are actually mandatory.
Does Tennessee have its own minimum wage law?
No. Tennessee is one of the states that never enacted its own wage floor, which leaves the federal 7.25 dollar rate as the only number in play. Describing the practice in words, rather than printing a dollar figure, avoids any confusion with a state-set rate that does not exist.
Does Tennessee require a written anti-harassment policy?
The Tennessee required-posters page makes no mention of a written policy or training mandate, and no separate statute surfaced in this research. That leaves the federal EEOC enforcement guidance as the standard Tennessee employers should build the harassment section around.
Does Tennessee require paid sick leave or paid family leave?
The Tennessee required-posters list does not include either. Employers offering paid leave anyway should write that section as company policy, distinct from the mandatory postings covered elsewhere on this page.
Does Tennessee have its own continuation of coverage law?
Yes, and the length depends on why coverage ended. General continuation runs the fractional policy month plus three additional months, but for termination due to divorce or death of the insured spouse, coverage can run the fractional month plus up to fifteen additional months.
Is BEG a PEO?
No. There is no co-employment and no employer-of-record change. Your company stays the employer; the HR professionals support your team. Powered by isolved.
Anthony leads HR outsourcing strategy at Business Executive Group, a national HR outsourcing firm serving employers across every state. BEG HR outsourcing is powered by isolved, with certified HR professionals tracking every Tennessee poster revision as it happens.
Sources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, required posters. General information, not legal advice.
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