Travel Time Pay: When Your Commute Counts as Work

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not tax, legal, or financial advice. Wage and hour rules can change; always check current Department of Labor guidance or consult a qualified employment attorney.

Quick Answer: When Travel Time Is Paid

Your ordinary drive from home to work is not paid, even if the destination changes day to day. Travel during your workday, between job sites, or as part of a special assignment usually is paid.

The Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 drew a line: routine home-to-work commuting sits outside the workday, but travel that is part of your principal activity counts as hours worked. Federal regulations at 29 CFR Part 785 fill in the details for the scenarios in between.

If compensable travel pushes your weekly hours past 40, the overtime premium kicks in on the same regular rate that applies to your other work. Three things matter: knowing which trips count, logging them correctly, and making sure they land in the right workweek.

Key Takeaways

• Home-to-work commuting is not paid. The Portal-to-Portal Act and 29 CFR 785.35 exempt ordinary commuting, even to varying sites or in an employer-provided vehicle.
• Travel between job sites during the workday is paid. Under 29 CFR 785.38, this is treated as part of your principal activity.
• Special one-day out-of-town trips are mostly paid. 29 CFR 785.37 lets the employer subtract only your normal commute time.
• Overnight travel during your normal working hours is paid, even on weekends. 29 CFR 785.39 ties the rule to the clock, not the calendar.
• Compensable travel counts toward the 40-hour FLSA overtime threshold. If it puts you over 40, time-and-a-half is owed.
• State law can be stricter. California (Morillion) and Washington (Port of Tacoma v. Sacks) treat employer-required travel more broadly than federal law does.

The Bright Line: The Portal-to-Portal Act and Your Ordinary Commute

Before 1947, court decisions had begun to treat all sorts of preliminary activity, including the walk from the plant gate to the work station, as paid time. Congress pushed back with the Portal-to-Portal Act (29 U.S.C. sections 251 through 262), which carved out “walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity” from the FLSA’s definition of work.

The Department of Labor wrote this into the regulations at 29 CFR 785.35. The headline rule is short: “normal travel from home to work is not work time.” That holds even if you report to a different site every day, and even if the commute is long.

The employer-vehicle question

Workers often assume that driving a company truck home means the commute is on the clock. The DOL’s travel time page disagrees. As long as the use of the vehicle is within your normal commuting area and any incidental activities (locking it up, filling the tank) take only a small amount of time, the commute itself stays unpaid.

What flips the analysis is whether you are performing actual work during the ride. Loading tools you are responsible for, transporting other employees on instruction, or fielding work calls can convert the trip from a commute into compensable time.

Different sites, same rule

Plumbers, electricians, home health aides, and other workers who go directly from home to a job site (or from a final job site home) are still on an ordinary commute under the federal regulations. The site can change every morning, but the commute analysis does not.

What matters is whether you stop somewhere along the way to perform a principal activity. The first principal activity of the day starts your workday. The last one ends it. Everything between counts; everything before and after generally does not.

Five Scenarios Where Your Travel Time Is Compensable

Federal regulations describe a handful of situations where travel is part of the workday rather than a precursor to it. Each one has its own rule, and the differences matter when you are trying to figure out what to log.

1. Travel between job sites during the workday

This is the cleanest case. 29 CFR 785.38 says that time spent traveling from job site to job site during the workday “must be counted as hours worked.” If you finish a service call at 10:00 a.m. and drive 40 minutes to the next one, those 40 minutes are paid.

The rule does not depend on who owns the vehicle. Whether you have keys to a company truck or are driving your own car, the trigger is the same: the travel happens between principal activities on the same workday.

2. Special one-day assignment in another city

29 CFR 785.37 covers the trip where your employer sends you out of town for a single day, then expects you home that night. Travel time on that day is compensable, with one carve-out: your employer can deduct the time you would normally spend commuting to your regular work site.

So if your normal commute is 30 minutes each way and your employer sends you on a 3-hour drive to a customer site, the deduction is about an hour. The remaining travel time, plus the time at the customer site, is paid.

3. Overnight travel during normal working hours

When the trip stretches across multiple days, the rule shifts to 29 CFR 785.39. Travel that cuts across an employee’s normal working hours is work time. It does not matter whether the day is Monday or Saturday: if you typically work 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., a Saturday flight from 9:00 a.m. to noon is compensable.

The flip side is the enforcement policy on passenger travel outside normal working hours. If you are riding (not driving) on a Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and free to relax, the DOL generally will not enforce that as work time, even though you are away from home.

4. Emergency callbacks

29 CFR 785.36 carves out a separate rule for emergencies. If you have already gone home for the day and are called back to address an emergency, the travel from home back to the work site can be compensable, especially when the call is for a substantial distance.

The classic example is a maintenance worker who finishes a shift, drives home, then gets called back at 11:00 p.m. to fix a broken machine. The drive back, the work, and (depending on the facts) the drive home all count.

5. Performing actual work while traveling

Even when a trip would normally be unpaid (a passenger seat on a commercial flight outside working hours, for instance), time spent actually working during that trip is compensable. Reading and replying to work emails, prepping a presentation, or taking work calls converts that slice of time into hours worked.

The practical issue is documentation. If you reply to emails for 45 minutes on a 3-hour flight, log the 45 minutes. The rest of the flight, if you were free to read a book or sleep, generally is not paid.

How Travel Time Affects Overtime

Once travel is compensable, it works like any other hour worked. It counts toward the 40-hour weekly threshold under the FLSA, and any hours over 40 trigger time-and-a-half on the regular rate.

Imagine a non-exempt worker who put in 36 regular hours at a customer site and another 6 hours of compensable inter-city travel that week. The total is 42 hours. Two of those hours are overtime, and the overtime premium is paid at 1.5 times the regular rate.

Different rate for travel? Yes, with conditions

Federal law lets an employer pay a lower rate for travel time than for your regular work, as long as the lower rate is at least the federal or state minimum wage and the arrangement is agreed in advance. (See DOL Fact Sheet #22 on hours worked.)

That does not let the employer avoid overtime. When the workweek hits 41 hours and beyond, the overtime premium has to be calculated on the weighted regular rate, which blends both pay rates by the hours worked at each. This is the same weighted-average rule used for any worker with two different pay rates in the same week.

A worked example

You earn $25 per hour at the worksite and $18 per hour for travel time, agreed in writing in advance. This week you work 38 worksite hours and 6 travel hours.

Straight-time earnings: 38 x $25 + 6 x $18 = $950 + $108 = $1,058. Total hours: 44. Weighted regular rate: $1,058 / 44 = $24.05. Half-time premium owed on the 4 overtime hours: 4 x ($24.05 x 0.5) = $48.09. Total pay for the week: $1,058 + $48.09 = $1,106.09.

For a quick check of your own travel week, the travel time pay calculator at Timeclock44 walks through the same arithmetic with your hours and rates plugged in.

State-Level Twists: California, Washington, and Oregon

Federal law is the floor, not the ceiling. Several states treat travel more broadly than the FLSA does, and those state rules apply on top of the federal ones for workers in those jurisdictions.

California: Morillion and employer-required transportation

In Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. (Cal. 2000), the California Supreme Court held that time spent on employer-mandated transportation is compensable. The farmworkers in that case were required to take company buses from designated pickup points to the fields, and the court found that requirement triggered the obligation to pay.

The principle reaches further than agriculture. Whenever a California employer requires workers to use specific transportation, prohibits other means of getting to the site, or restricts what workers can do during the ride, the travel typically becomes hours worked under state law.

California: company-vehicle commute

California’s rule on company-vehicle commutes is also stricter than the federal one. If the employer requires use of the company vehicle and limits what the employee can do during the drive (no personal errands, must be available for dispatch), that commute time can be compensable even if the federal rule would treat it as unpaid commuting.

Washington: Port of Tacoma v. Sacks

Washington’s WAC 296-126-002(8) defines hours worked as “all hours during which the employee is authorized or required, known or reasonably believed by the employer to be on the duty premises or at a prescribed work place.” That definition is broader than the FLSA’s, and Washington courts have applied it accordingly.

In Port of Tacoma v. Sacks (2021), the Washington Court of Appeals confirmed that required out-of-town travel is hours worked under state law, even when the same travel would be exempt under the federal rule for passenger travel outside normal working hours. Washington employers cannot rely on the federal carve-out to avoid paying for that time.

Oregon: BOLI’s strict take on inter-site travel

Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries follows the FLSA framework but enforces the inter-site travel rule strictly. If you drive from one job site to another during the workday in Oregon, that time is hours worked, period, and BOLI will pursue wage claims when it is not paid.

What’s Still Not Paid (Even If It Feels Like Work)

Some travel scenarios feel like they should be paid but generally are not. Understanding the exceptions helps you draw the line accurately.

Passenger travel outside normal working hours

As an enforcement policy under 29 CFR 785.39, the DOL will not count time spent as a passenger on a plane, train, bus, or boat outside normal working hours as hours worked. If your normal schedule is 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and your flight from Chicago to Phoenix leaves at 7:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, the flight itself usually is not compensable, provided you are not performing work during the trip.

That changes if you are driving (even outside normal hours, that is typically work) or if you are doing actual work on the flight.

Stopping at the office to pick up tools or paperwork

Voluntary stops on the way to a job site to grab equipment generally do not start the workday in most states. The line is drawn at the first principal activity, and a quick stop to grab a box of supplies often will not qualify on its own.

If the stop is required (you cannot start work without the materials and the employer has directed you to pick them up), the analysis can shift. Courts and the DOL have treated mandatory tool pickups as the start of compensable time in some fact patterns.

The “ordinary commute” portion of a one-day trip

Remember the 785.37 deduction. When you are sent on a special one-day out-of-town assignment, your employer can subtract your normal home-to-work commute time from the total travel time. That deduction is real, and it can reduce the paid travel hours by an hour or more depending on your usual commute.

How to Track Travel Time So You Get Paid Correctly

Most travel-pay disputes come down to records. The employer says the trip wasn’t compensable, or you weren’t actually working, or the hours were already covered. You need a contemporaneous log to push back.

Log travel as a separate segment

For each compensable trip, record the start time, end time, origin, destination, and whether you were driving or a passenger. If you performed work during a passenger trip, note the time and what you were doing. A travel-time log built this way matches the categories the FLSA uses to evaluate the claim.

Use a per-shift rate override when travel pays differently

When travel time pays a different (legal) rate than your regular work, your time tracking has to capture both rates so the weekly overtime math works. A timesheet that records only “44 hours” without identifying which hours were travel and which were on-site cannot produce a correct weighted regular rate. Apps like Timeclock44 let you assign a per-shift or per-segment rate so the weekly totals come out right.

Keep travel hours in the same workweek

The FLSA overtime threshold is weekly. Travel performed on Saturday and the rest of your work performed Monday through Friday all roll into the same workweek total. If your timesheet treats travel as a separate “trip” outside the normal week, the overtime calculation can miss hours you should have been credited for.

Save the supporting documents

Keep dispatch tickets, calendar invites, gate-pass logs, fuel receipts, and any text or email instructions about the trip. These corroborate the dates and times in your travel log. If a dispute arises, contemporaneous records carry far more weight than reconstructions after the fact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my commute from home to work count as paid work hours?

No. Under the Portal-to-Portal Act and 29 CFR 785.35, ordinary home-to-work travel is not compensable, even if you report to different sites or drive an employer-provided vehicle.

Do I get paid for traveling between job sites during my workday?

Yes. 29 CFR 785.38 requires that all travel between job sites during the workday be counted as hours worked.

If I’m sent to another city for a one-day assignment, do I get paid for the drive?

Yes, with one carve-out. Under 29 CFR 785.37, your employer may deduct the time you would have normally spent commuting to your regular work site, but the rest of the travel time is paid.

Do I get paid for overnight business travel on a weekend?

Yes, but only for the hours that fall within your normal working hours. Travel during regular work hours on a Saturday or Sunday is compensable. Travel outside those hours as a passenger generally is not (29 CFR 785.39).

Does travel time count toward overtime?

Yes. Compensable travel time counts as hours worked under the FLSA, so if it pushes you over 40 hours in a workweek, you must be paid time-and-a-half on the excess.

Can my employer pay a lower rate for travel time than for my regular work?

Yes, if agreed in advance and the travel rate is at least the federal or state minimum wage. Overtime, however, must be calculated using the weighted regular rate that blends both pay rates for the week.

Do I get paid if my employer requires me to ride a company bus or van to the worksite?

In California, yes. Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. held that mandatory employer-provided transportation is compensable. Under federal law, it depends on whether you’re performing work or under the employer’s control during the ride.

Does travel pay apply to salaried (exempt) employees?

No. These FLSA travel-time rules apply to non-exempt (hourly) employees. Exempt salaried employees are not entitled to extra travel pay.

Related Reading

• Regular Rate of Pay: What Counts for Overtime: how bonuses, differentials, and mixed pay rates blend into the regular rate that drives every overtime calculation.
• Travel Time Pay Calculator: plug in your worksite hours, travel hours, and rates to see the weighted regular rate and overtime owed.
• Browse all Timeclock44 tools: calculators for overtime, premium pay, weighted averages, and other payroll time math.

References

1. DOL Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the FLSA: official summary of hours-worked categories, including travel scenarios and the standard for compensable time.
2. DOL Travel Time Topic Page: Department of Labor guidance on when commuting and travel between work activities is compensable.
3. 29 CFR Part 785, Subpart C: Travel Time: full federal regulations covering home-to-work travel, inter-site travel, one-day assignments, and overnight trips.
4. 29 U.S.C. Chapter 9: Portal-to-Portal Pay: the statutory source for the ordinary-commute exemption from FLSA hours worked.
5. Cornell LII: 29 CFR 785.38 (Travel That Is All in a Day’s Work): regulation requiring inter-site travel during the workday to be counted as hours worked.
6. Washington WAC 296-126-002: Definitions: Washington’s broader definition of hours worked, applied in Port of Tacoma v. Sacks.
7. California DLSE Wage FAQ (PDF): California’s enforcement guidance covering Morillion-style employer-required transportation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my commute from home to work count as paid work hours?

No. Under the Portal-to-Portal Act and 29 CFR 785.35, ordinary home-to-work travel is not compensable, even if you report to different sites or drive an employer-provided vehicle.

Do I get paid for traveling between job sites during my workday?

Yes. 29 CFR 785.38 requires that all travel between job sites during the workday be counted as hours worked.

If I'm sent to another city for a one-day assignment, do I get paid for the drive?

Yes, with one carve-out. Under 29 CFR 785.37, your employer may deduct the time you would have normally spent commuting to your regular work site, but the rest of the travel time is paid.

Do I get paid for overnight business travel on a weekend?

Yes, but only for the hours that fall within your normal working hours. Travel during regular work hours on a Saturday or Sunday is compensable. Travel outside those hours as a passenger generally is not (29 CFR 785.39).

Does travel time count toward overtime?

Yes. Compensable travel time counts as hours worked under the FLSA, so if it pushes you over 40 hours in a workweek, you must be paid time-and-a-half on the excess.

Can my employer pay a lower rate for travel time than for my regular work?

Yes, if agreed in advance and the travel rate is at least the federal or state minimum wage. Overtime, however, must be calculated using the weighted regular rate that blends both pay rates for the week.

Do I get paid if my employer requires me to ride a company bus or van to the worksite?

In California, yes. Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. held that mandatory employer-provided transportation is compensable. Under federal law, it depends on whether you're performing work or under the employer's control during the ride.

Does travel pay apply to salaried (exempt) employees?

No. These FLSA travel-time rules apply to non-exempt (hourly) employees. Exempt salaried employees are not entitled to extra travel pay.