Do I Get Paid for Travel Time? — In Plain Words

This page is general information only. It is not legal advice.

This page explains when travel time counts as work time.

It is about the Fair Labor Standards Act.

People call it the FLSA for short.

This page covers the federal rules only.

Every rule on this page comes from two sources.

One source is Fact Sheet #22 from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The other source is the federal rules at 29 CFR sections 785.33 to 785.41.

Those sections are the travel-time rules.

The two sources are kept apart on this page.

Each part is labeled with the source it came from.

Where the two sources say things in different ways, this page does not merge them into one rule.

The short answer

Fact Sheet #22 says the principles which apply in determining whether time spent in travel is compensable time depend upon the kind of travel involved.

Section 785.33 of the rules says the same thing in its own words: the principles which apply in determining whether or not time spent in travel is working time depend upon the kind of travel involved.

So there is no single answer for all travel.

The kind of travel decides the rule.

This page states the rules as the Department of Labor states them.

It does not decide whether any one person's trip counts.

Only the employer or the U.S. Department of Labor can decide a real case.

Fact Sheet #22: ordinary home-to-work travel

Fact Sheet #22 has a part called "Home to Work Travel."

It states this rule.

An employee who travels from home before the regular workday and returns to his or her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home to work travel, which is not work time.

That is the sheet's rule for the ordinary commute.

Fact Sheet #22: a special one-day assignment in another city

Fact Sheet #22 has a part called "Home to Work on a Special One Day Assignment in Another City."

It describes an employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city.

That employee is given a special one day assignment in another city and returns home the same day.

The sheet says the time spent in traveling to and returning from the other city is work time.

It gives one exception.

The employer may deduct, or not count, that time the employee would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.

Fact Sheet #22: travel that is all in a day's work

Fact Sheet #22 has a part called "Travel That is All in a Day's Work."

It states this rule.

Time spent by an employee in travel 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.

Fact Sheet #22: travel away from home

Fact Sheet #22 has a part called "Travel Away from Home Community."

It says travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home.

It says travel away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday.

The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours, but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days.

The sheet then states an enforcement policy.

As an enforcement policy the Division will not consider as work time that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.

29 CFR § 785.34: the Portal-to-Portal Act and travel time

Section 785.34 is a brief discussion of the Portal-to-Portal Act as it applies to travel time.

Section 785.33 says that discussion comes before the travel rules in sections 785.35 to 785.41.

Section 785.34 states what section 4(a) of the Portal Act provides.

Except as provided in subsection (b), no employer shall be liable for the failure to pay the minimum wage or overtime compensation for time spent in walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity or activities which the employee is employed to perform, either before the time on any particular workday at which the employee commences that activity, or after the time on that workday at which the employee ceases it.

Section 785.34 also states this part of section 4(a).

The use of an employer's vehicle for travel by an employee, and activities that are incidental to the use of such vehicle for commuting, are not considered principal activities when the use of the vehicle is within the normal commuting area for the employer's business or establishment and is subject to an agreement on the part of the employer and the employee or the representative of the employee.

Section 785.34 states what subsection (b) provides.

The employer shall not be relieved from liability if the activity is compensable by express contract or by custom or practice not inconsistent with an express contract.

Section 785.34 explains the result this way.

Travel time at the commencement or cessation of the workday which was originally considered as working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as underground travel in mines or walking from time clock to work-bench, need not be counted as working time unless it is compensable by contract, custom or practice.

If it is compensable by express contract or by custom or practice not inconsistent with an express contract, such travel time must be counted in computing hours worked.

Section 785.34 then adds this line about ordinary travel.

However, ordinary travel from home to work (see § 785.35) need not be counted as hours worked even if the employer agrees to pay for it.

29 CFR § 785.35: home to work, the ordinary situation

Section 785.35 states this rule.

An employee who travels from home before his regular workday and returns to his home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home to work travel which is a normal incident of employment.

This is true whether he works at a fixed location or at different job sites.

Normal travel from home to work is not worktime.

29 CFR § 785.36: home to work in emergency situations

Section 785.36 says there may be instances when travel from home to work is overtime.

It gives this example.

If an employee who has gone home after completing his day's work is subsequently called out at night to travel a substantial distance to perform an emergency job for one of his employer's customers, all time spent on such travel is working time.

Section 785.36 then states a limit.

The Divisions are taking no position on whether travel to the job and back home by an employee who receives an emergency call outside of his regular hours to report back to his regular place of business to do a job is working time.

That is the section's own line.

This page does not extend the emergency example past the words the section prints.

29 CFR § 785.37: home to work on a special one-day assignment in another city

Section 785.37 describes a problem that arises when an employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city is given a special 1-day work assignment in another city.

The section gives this example.

An employee who works in Washington, DC, with regular working hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. may be given a special assignment in New York City, with instructions to leave Washington at 8 a.m.

He arrives in New York at 12 noon, ready for work.

The special assignment is completed at 3 p.m., and the employee arrives back in Washington at 7 p.m.

Section 785.37 states why this travel is treated differently.

Such travel cannot be regarded as ordinary home-to-work travel occasioned merely by the fact of employment.

It was performed for the employer's benefit and at his special request to meet the needs of the particular and unusual assignment.

It would thus qualify as an integral part of the "principal" activity which the employee was hired to perform on the workday in question.

The section says it is like travel involved in an emergency call (described in § 785.36), or like travel that is all in the day's work (see § 785.38).

Section 785.37 then states what need not be counted.

All the time involved, however, need not be counted.

Since, except for the special assignment, the employee would have had to report to his regular work site, the travel between his home and the railroad depot may be deducted, it being in the "home-to-work" category.

Also, of course, the usual meal time would be deductible.

29 CFR § 785.38: travel that is all in the day's work

Section 785.38 states this rule.

Time spent by an employee in travel as part of his principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday, must be counted as hours worked.

The section gives a second rule about a meeting place.

Where an employee is required to report at a meeting place to receive instructions or to perform other work there, or to pick up and to carry tools, the travel from the designated place to the work place is part of the day's work, and must be counted as hours worked regardless of contract, custom, or practice.

The section then gives this example.

If an employee normally finishes his work on the premises at 5 p.m. and is sent to another job which he finishes at 8 p.m. and is required to return to his employer's premises arriving at 9 p.m., all of the time is working time.

However, if the employee goes home instead of returning to his employer's premises, the travel after 8 p.m. is home-to-work travel and is not hours worked.

29 CFR § 785.39: travel away from home community

Section 785.39 says travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home.

It says travel away from home is clearly worktime when it cuts across the employee's workday.

The employee is simply substituting travel for other duties.

The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during the corresponding hours on nonworking days.

The section gives this example.

Thus, if an employee regularly works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday the travel time during these hours is worktime on Saturday and Sunday as well as on the other days.

The section states that regular meal period time is not counted.

The section then states an enforcement policy.

As an enforcement policy the Divisions will not consider as worktime that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.

29 CFR § 785.40: when a private automobile is used in travel away from home

Section 785.40 covers travel away from the home community.

It states this rule.

If an employee is offered public transportation but requests permission to drive his car instead, the employer may count as hours worked either the time spent driving the car or the time he would have had to count as hours worked during working hours if the employee had used the public conveyance.

29 CFR § 785.41: work performed while traveling

Section 785.41 states this rule.

Any work which an employee is required to perform while traveling must, of course, be counted as hours worked.

The section gives this example of work while riding.

An employee who drives a truck, bus, automobile, boat or airplane, or an employee who is required to ride therein as an assistant or helper, is working while riding, except during bona fide meal periods or when he is permitted to sleep in adequate facilities furnished by the employer.

What these sources do not decide

Fact Sheet #22 and sections 785.33 to 785.41 state general rules.

They do not decide whether any one person's travel time counts in a real case.

Section 785.36 states one open point in its own words.

On that point, the Divisions are taking no position, as that section states above.

Where the sheet and the sections are silent, this page is silent too.

Fact Sheet #22 opens by saying it provides general information concerning what constitutes compensable time under the FLSA.

This page is general information only. It is not legal advice.