Tennessee has a leave law called the Tennessee Maternity Leave law (TML), which provides unpaid, job-protected leave to birth parents and non-birthing parents who are delivering and/or caring and bonding with a child. Where an employee is eligible for each law, the TML will generally run concurrently with federal FMLA. As part of our leave of absence service, The Larkin Company will track TML leaves.

Tennessee also enacted Senate Bill 454 (effective January 1, 2024). This is not a formal state paid family and medical leave program, but instead simply establishes family leave insurance as a class of insurance. This, in turn, allows employers to include PFL reasons (i.e. bonding, family care leave, military exigency) within their insured STD plan within Tennessee (Virginia and Arkansas have a similar law – see here).

We understand that this legislation is intended to give employers the option and to encourage employers to provide PFL benefits to employees, without the need for the state legislature to enact a formal state provided PFL program. This law applies to insured STD plans and not self-insured plans. If you wish to add PFL to your insured STD plan, please discuss this with your STD carrier. If you do move forward to include PFL in your STD plan, please update your Larkin Client Success Manager so we can inform your employees on PFL to apply for STD.

The Larkin Company generally recommends that if you do wish to provide PFL benefits to employees that you do so by developing a salary continuation/top-up program instead of providing PFL via your STD program. There are typically less stringent paperwork requirements for employees under salary continuation/top-up programs, compared with STD PFL plans. Further, if you have an insured STD plan, including PFL in your insured STD plan may result in increased insurance premiums due to increased employee claims.

Note: If you have a self-insured plan, there is nothing to prevent employers from adding PFL reasons into your STD plan. However, The Larkin Company, again, recommends providing salary continuation/top-up program for PFL reasons, so employees do not have additional paperwork on top of paperwork they may have to already provide under FMLA/company leave policy. If you have questions, please reach out to your Larkin Client Success Manager.

If you would like a reminder on the services that Larkin provides in general, please see here.

N/A – there are no state leave income replacement benefits in Tennessee.

Some leave laws require that you notify your employees about their rights under the law, such as, by providing a prescribed notice to new hires, displaying a poster in the workplace, and/or including information about that leave law in your company handbook. Below you will find a summary of the requirements for each law.

Where the law requires that a leave poster/notice must be provided to the employee when they request leave, The Larkin Company will provide the applicable document within our introductory leave packets (see “Larkin Enclosures” within this resource).

The “Employer Statements” section is not applicable to Tennessee. Employers may be required to complete employer forms (as part of an employee’s claim for benefits) for certain state income replacement programs, so they must be prepared to look up employee information and respond within the given timelines. However, there are no state leave income replacement benefits in Tennessee at this time.

State Website(s)

Tennessee Maternity Leave law, TN MLA (Leave Law) – no specific website available.

State Law and Regulation(s)

TN MLA
Tennessee Senate Bill 454 (STD Rider Law)