is there a state law that dictates vacation payout for tennessee? Are employers required to payout accrued but unused vacation? Is it different for exempt vs non exempt? I am trying to help a friend who is an exempt employee who has given his 2 week notice and is getting the runaround by company regarding his vacation payout. I am not familiar enough with TN law to advise. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Tennessee law does not require that an employer offer paid vacation. However, if the employer does offer paid vacation, the value of any unused vacation must be paid at termination. It does not matter whether the employee is exempt or non-exempt.

Please note that an employee only has to be paid what has already been accrued at the time they leave employment, not the entire amount they would have accrued had they stayed the entire year.

Example: if you accrue 10 days over the course of a year and you leave effective June 30, you would not be due 10 days; you would be due 5 days minus whatever time you may have already taken.

Can you please point me toward any case law to support this response? When I look around, I seem to find conflicting information that states that in TN an employer is NOT required to payout any unused but accrued vacation.

It would appear that the law has changed in the three years since this thread was first posted. The following is cut and pasted directly from the TN DOL website - in other words, right from the source:

If an employer's policy provides a paid vacation and the employee's employment is terminated, is the employer required to compensate for any vacation time I have accrued but not used?

No. Unless the employer's policy or its labor agreement specifically requires compensation of unused "vacation pay or other compensatory time" to an employee upon his or her termination of employment, Tennessee Code Annotated § 50-2-103(a)(3) does not require that an employee's final wages include such compensation.

That's what I also have in my reference & since it's also on the Tn. DOL website I'm sure that is the current correct information.

And this is a perfect example of why it's a bad idea to resurrect long dead posts.