It depends. The Department of Labor considers time spent traveling compensable if:
- The worker is required to travel during regular working hours;
- The worker is required to drive a vehicle or perform other work while traveling;
- The worker is required to travel as a passenger on a one-day assignment away from his/her fixed location; OR
- The worker is required to travel as a passenger on an overnight assignment away from his/her usual place of work during hours on non-workdays that correspond to the worker’s regular working hours.
Ordinary home-to-work travel is not considered work time when an employee leaves their home before the regular workday and returns home at the end of the workday. However, when a person travels as part of their primary task, such as going from one job site to another during the workday, that time is considered work time and needs to be recorded as hours worked. For instance, a home healthcare worker who is required to drive from one patient’s house to another during the day is working and the worker’s time must be compensated and included in the calculation of overtime pay. There are other situations when an employee must be paid for travel.
An employee must also be compensated if he/she regularly works at a fixed location in one city and is given a special one day assignment in another city and returns home the same day. The time spent in traveling to and returning from the other city is considered work time but the employer may deduct/not count the time the employee would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.
Likewise, travel that requires an employee to spend the night away from home is clearly compensable if it cuts across an employee’s normal scheduled hours during his/her regular workday. This holds true for non-working days too. Of course, all hours wherein the employee is engaged in work activities are also compensable and must be included in overtime calculations.
If you are required to drive for work and have not been compensated for your time, call the attorneys at Bohrer Brady, LLC for a free initial consultation. Our team will analyze whether you are entitled to back wages, including overtime pay.
