Clocking In: Does Your Employees' Travel Time Count as Work Hours Under FLSA?

Author: Brightmine Editorial Team

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Few wage and hour issues generate as much confusion as whether employee travel time counts as compensable work hours under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The statute itself offers only high-level guidance, leaving employers to rely heavily on US Department of Labor (DOL) regulations and case law to interpret the FLSA-level guidance.

At a time when mobile workforces, remote assignments and multi-site operations are increasingly common, understanding how the FLSA treats different categories of travel time is essential to managing compliance risk.

It is important for employers to understand the regulatory framework governing travel time and how courts apply those rules in practice, and to recognize the common compliance pressure points.

The FLSA requires covered employers to pay nonexempt employees for all hours worked, including overtime for hours exceeding 40 in a workweek. The FLSA defines "employ" broadly to include time an employee is "suffered or permitted to work," but it does not spell out when travel qualifies as working time.

That gap is filled in part by:

  • A 1947 amendment to the FLSA called the Portal-to-Portal Act, which excludes from compensation certain "preliminary and postliminary activities," including ordinary commuting, and
  • The DOL's interpretive regulations, found at 29 CFR § 785.33 through 29 CFR § 785.41.

As a general rule, an employer should assume that an employee should be paid for all time spent traveling unless the travel time is explicitly excluded. The most widely applicable exclusion is for commuting time. There are other, more narrow exclusions, too.

Employers should bear in mind that there may be important variations under state law, as well.

Kinds of Travel

The regulations state that travel time is compensable depending on the kind of travel involved. They address common scenarios, including:

Commuting

Normal travel from home to the worksite at the beginning and end of the workday is not compensable working time. This rule applies whether an employee works at a fixed location or at different job sites.

The Portal-to-Portal Act reinforces this principle, providing that employers are generally not liable for failing to pay for time spent "walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance" of principal work activities.

Courts have consistently treated ordinary commuting as outside the compensable workday, even when the commute is lengthy or inconvenient. The focus remains on whether the travel is a normal part of employment, not its duration.

Emergency Call-Back Travel-Back Travel

Travel that might otherwise resemble a commute can become compensable when it occurs in an emergency context. When an employee is called back after completing the workday to travel a substantial distance for an emergency job, all time spent traveling counts as working time.

The regulation reflects the view that such travel is performed for the employer's benefit and at the employer's request, distinguishing it from routine commuting.

Travel During the Workday

Once the workday has started, the analysis changes significantly. What the regulations call travel that is "all in the day's work" - such as moving from one job site to another - must be counted as hours worked.

This principle illustrates the so-called continuous workday doctrine, which treats the workday as running from the first principal activity to the last. Travel occurring between those points is generally compensable, even if the employee is not performing active labor during the trip. For example, the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals held that home health aides had to be paid for travel time between patients' homes because that travel was integral and indispensable to their principal caregiving duties.

Special One-Day Assignments in Another City

Travel for a special one-day assignment outside an employee's regular work city occupies a middle ground between commuting and overnight travel. The regulations explain that such travel is not ordinary home-to-work travel when it is performed at the employer's special request to meet a particular need.

In these situations, most of the travel time is compensable, although employers may deduct the time the employee would normally spend commuting to their regular worksite, as well as bona fide meal periods. For instance, in the case of an employee who works in Washington, DC, being given a special assignment in New York City, the travel was performed for the employer's benefit and thus qualifies as an integral part of the "principal activity" the employee was hired to perform. However, since the employee would have had to report to their regular work site if it were not for the special assignment, the travel between their home and the train station may be deducted.

Overnight Travel Away From Home

Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is considered compensable working time when it cuts across the employee's normal working hours, even if it occurs on a nonworking day.

By contrast, time spent traveling outside normal working hours as a passenger - such as on an airplane or train - is generally not compensable, unless the employee performs work while traveling.

Work Performed While Traveling

Employees must be paid for any work they actually perform while traveling, even when the travel itself might not be compensable.

Responding to emails, participating in work calls or completing required reports during travel all can transform otherwise-noncompensable time into compensable working time, a point that has taken on added significance as mobile technology blurs the line between travel and work.

Practical Considerations

The travel time regulations appear simple on paper but can prove difficult to apply in real-world situations. Employers with mobile or multisite workforces often face recurring compliance challenges, including:

  • Determining when the workday starts for employees required to report to a central location.
  • Tracking compensable travel time accurately for overtime purposes.
  • Managing employee expectations when paid travel differs from reimbursed travel.
  • Accounting for state wage and hour laws that may impose stricter requirements than the FLSA.

Employers should adopt clear policies and reliable time-tracking systems for work-related travel.

Key Takeaways

The FLSA's treatment of travel time turns less on distance or inconvenience and more on purpose and timing. Ordinary commuting remains noncompensable, but travel that is integral to an employee's principal activities - particularly travel during the workday or during normal working hours on overnight assignments - generally counts as hours worked.

As courts continue to apply longstanding regulations to modern work arrangements, travel time remains a high-risk area for employers. Employers that revisit their travel practices through the lens of the regulations and recent case law are better positioned to manage that risk.