Compensating Employees for Travel Time under the FLSA
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to compensate their employees for all hours of work. To comply with this requirement, employers must keep track of the number of compensable hours employees work during a workweek. Whether time traveling is compensable depends on the kind of travel involved.
Compensable Time
Compensable time includes all hours during which employees:
- Perform productive work; and
- Are required by their employers to remain available for the next assignment.
Compensable time does not include periods where individuals are relieved of all obligations and are free to pursue his or her own interests.
“All In a Day’s Work”
Time spent by employees traveling as part of their principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday, is work time and must be counted as hours worked.
Home-to-work Travel
Employees who travel from home before the regular workday and return to their home at the end of the workday are engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel or commute. Ordinary work commute is not work time.
Special One-day Assignments in Another City
Employees who regularly work at a fixed location in one city may be given a special one-day assignment in another city with the expectation of returning home the same day.
The time these employees spend traveling to and returning from the other city is work time. However, employers may deduct from this time the period employees would normally spend commuting to their regular work site.
Travel Away from Home Community
Travel that keeps employees away from home overnight is travel away from home. The U.S. Department of Labor has indicated that “traveling away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across any employee’s workday.” This time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days.
However, employers are not required to not consider as work time the time employees spend traveling away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.
This Compliance Snapshot is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel for legal advice. © 2023 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.
