Employee Expense Reimbursement Requirements in Tennessee

At a glance

Tennessee has no general reimbursement mandate

Tennessee's labor code is Title 50 of the Tennessee Code. Its chapters cover employment conditions (Chapter 1), wages and hours (Chapter 2), occupational safety, workers' compensation (Chapter 6), and unemployment (Chapter 7). None of them is a general scheme requiring an ordinary private employer to reimburse an employee's business expenses.

Chapter 1 is where a working-conditions duty of this kind would most likely sit. Its parts run from hiring practices and right-to-work through "Working Conditions Generally," private pensions, plant closings, the Lawful Employment Act, and retaliatory discharge — no expense-reimbursement or employee-indemnity part among them. The wage law in Chapter 2 governs how and when wages are paid, not the repayment of costs an employee lays out for the job.

Title 50 does use the word "reimbursement," but only in unrelated schemes: the workers' compensation law reimburses an injured worker's medical and travel expenses (§ 50-6-204), and the unemployment law addresses reimbursement between the agency and employers or claimants (§ 50-7-304). Neither creates a general duty to repay an employee's ordinary work expenses.

Without a general reimbursement scheme, Title 50 supplies no universal necessary-expense test, authorization or primary-benefit rule, employee request deadline, receipt form, policy cap, payment deadline, interest rule, or reimbursement-specific remedy. A right to be repaid would have to rest on the employment agreement, an employer's own policy, or a different law.

What trips people up

Workers' compensation is a separate scheme (Title 50, Chapter 6) and its medical and mileage reimbursement for an injured worker is not a general business-expense mandate. The state labor agency's only published mileage benefit is that workers' compensation travel rate, not an ordinary-expense rule.

Reimbursement is also distinct from wage deductions and minimum-wage compliance. Tennessee has no state minimum-wage statute, so federal wage law supplies the applicable floor; that floor can limit shifting some costs onto a low-wage worker without creating a state reimbursement procedure.

Common questions

Does Tennessee require mileage reimbursement for private employees?

Not under a general state statute. Title 50 creates no statewide mileage rate or universal mileage-payment duty for ordinary private employment. Mileage is reimbursable only if an employment agreement, policy, or a different law promises it. (The state mileage figure people cite is a workers' compensation travel rate for injured workers.)

Is there a statewide deadline for submitting receipts?

No general deadline or proof format appears because Title 50 contains no general employee-expense reimbursement scheme.

Does Tennessee provide a reimbursement-specific wage claim?

Title 50 creates no general reimbursement entitlement or matching agency claim, damages formula, interest rule, or limitations period. A different claim would need its own legal basis.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code Title 50, Chapter 1 (part index). The employment-conditions chapter lists its parts (hiring, right to work, working conditions generally, pensions, plant closings, lawful employment, retaliatory discharge) and contains no employee-expense reimbursement or indemnity part. Official code mirror (accessed July 17, 2026).
• Tenn. Code Title 50, Chapter 2, Part 1 (section index). The wage-and-hour Part 1 sections, none of which requires an employer to reimburse an employee's business expenses. Official code mirror (accessed July 17, 2026).