As many
drive from site to site during the workday or travel for business, it may be time
for employers to revisit the question of when local and out-of-town travel time
constitute work time for which an employer must compensate employees. In this
two-part series on compensable work time, we’ll look at when employers must
compensate employees for local and out-of-town travel and for time spent in
training sessions.
Fair Labor Standards Act
Federal law provides
rules for determining when travel time is paid work time for which an employee must
be paid. The Fair Labor Standards Act states that:
• An employee who
travels from home before the regular workday and then returns home at the end of
the day is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel, which is not compensable
work time.
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• The time an employee
who regularly works in the same location spends traveling on a one-day
assignment in another city is work time, although the employer can deduct the
time the employee would normally spend in commuting to his or her regular worksite.
• Time an employee
spends traveling as a normal part of the workday, such as traveling from
jobsite to jobsite, counts as work time.
• Travel that keeps an
employee away from home overnight counts as work time. The U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) considers this time to be hours worked on regular working days
during normal working hours and also during corresponding hours on nonworking
days. As an enforcement policy, the DOL will not consider as compensable work
time the time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours
as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile. Regular meal period
times are not compensable when traveling.
The HR Management & Compliance Report: How To Comply with California Wage & Hour Law, explains everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the state’s complex and ever-changing rules, laws, and regulations in this area. Coverage on bonuses, meal and rest breaks, overtime, alternative workweeks, final paychecks, and more.
In
compensable work time when the employer requires employees to meet at a
designated place and use the employer’s transportation to and from the worksite
while prohibiting the employees from using their own transportation.
Compulsory travel time
that is longer than the employee’s normal commute is compensable time, with pay
given for the additional time the employee uses. Travel time to a jobsite
located a reasonable distance from the employee’s regular worksite is not
compensable. If an employee doesn’t have a regular jobsite, travel time to the
new jobsite each day isn’t compensable. An employee who has a temporary work location
change must be compensated for any additional time required to travel to the
new jobsite in excess of his or her normal commute time.
Regarding out-of-town
travel, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement takes the
position that if an employer requires an employee to attend a business meeting
or training session out of town, the employer must pay for the employee’s time
getting to and from the event. Time spent driving (or as a passenger on an
airplane, train, bus, or other mode of transportation) to get to the
out-of-town event, as well as time spent waiting to purchase a ticket, check
baggage, etc., is time spent carrying out the employer’s directives and, as
such, is considered compensable work time. Time spent taking a break from
travel to eat, sleep, or engage in personal pursuits is not compensable.
Practical Impact
Generally,
should be aware of the likely costs involved in sending employees on out-of-town
travel. Thus, employers should review their current travel policies for
compensating nonexempt employees for out-of-town trips, and, if they have not already
done so, consider implementing a written travel policy. Employers may
compensate employees at the state’s minimum wage for time spent traveling on
out-of-town business, but in practice, most employers pay regular rates for
such travel.