Answers to tricky legal questions: When nonexempts go on the road
May 7, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Overtime
Our team of experts fields real-life, everyday questions from HR managers and gives practical answers that can be applied by any HR pro in the same situation. Today’s question: What do you pay nonexempt employees who travel?
Question: When non-exempt employees travel overnight or on weekends, what parts of their travel time are we required to pay for?
Answer: You need to pay them for any time they spend working while they travel, says Lorenger. But even if they don’t do any work, they still have to be paid for any travel time that cuts into their normal work hours.
For example, if employees normally work from 9 to 5 but spends an entire day on a plane (and not doing any work), you only have to pay for the time that falls between 9 and 5.
In a curious legal twist, the day the travel takes place doesn’t matter. For example, even if employees don’t normally work Saturdays or Sundays, any time spent traveling between 9 and 5 on those days is compensable.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
What about non-exempts whose work related travel goes beyond their normal work hours? A 9 to 5 non-exempt travels by car to another work site (not his duty station) - he has to be there at 9, it’s a 2 hour trip from both his home and duty station, so he leaves his home at 7 am. His day ends at 5, then travels back to his duty station/home, arriving at 7 pm. Does he get the OT for the travel time that goes beyond his normal work hours?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Would OT be owed to the traveler if indeed the travel hours extended the work week beyond their 40? Or are travel hours like holiday pay where they are not considered work and do not add to OT?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Hi Steve,
Yep, that travel time gets paid for and counts toward OT calculations:
In the words of the Department of Labor:
“An employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city 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 work time, except that the employer may deduct/not count that time the employee would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.”
Sam Narisi
Editor
HRLegalNews.com
May 14th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I understood that if a non-exempt person is the one driving and the time driving is outside the normal work hours, that must be considered paid time, but if that person is a passenger, then they would not have to be paid. Is that a correct distinction? Makes some sense since a person driving is ‘working’ but the passenger could be sleeping.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Sam - Appreciate your resposne. You’re excellent. Your articles and insights are a great joy and benefit to the rest of our HR staff. You help more people in more ways than you may realize. Thanks so much for all your positive contributions to the HR realm.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am
We have an employee who has traditionally worked out of our corporate office and has been asked to work 1-2 days/week at a client site that would add approximately 1.5 hours of travel both to and from the worksite on those days. I understand the extra travel time would be compensable, but what would our responsibilities be in regards to mileage if he is driving his personal vehicle?
May 15th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
In California, the stipulation on travel time is door to door, (time left house to time at hotel, less normal commute time) on just on the plane. Comment ?
May 16th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Dee,
The travel time is considered “hours worked,” so it would be included in the OT.
Sam Narisi
Editor
HRLegalNews.com
May 16th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Sue K,
Yes, you’re correct. Passengers don’t have to be paid for the travel time outside of normal work hours (unless the passenger is working while they travel).
Sam Narisi
Editor
HRLegalNews.com
May 16th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Katie,
There’s no federal law requiring companies to reimburse employees for mileage. California has such a law, but I’m not aware of other states that do. Many companies do offer mileage reimbursement, and the IRS’s optional “standard rate” is 50.5 cents per mile.
Sam Narisi
Editor
HRLegalNews.com
June 9th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
[...] and gives practical answers that can be applied by any HR pro in the same situation. Answers to tricky legal questions: When nonexempts go on the road May 7, 2008 by Sam Narisi Posted in: In this week’s e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, [...]
June 11th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Under the FLSA, can we alter non-exempt’s work schedules to avoid paying OT? For example, if we have a technician that needs to work 16 hrs on the weekend on a job, can we tell him to stay home Monday and Tuesday without pay, in that pay cycle, so we don’t have to pay him 16 hrs OT?
June 20th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Mary,
It sounds like you’re just talking about scheduling employees so they don’t work more than 40 hours in a given week, which is fine under FLSA.
Sam Narisi
July 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Great info on nonexempt overtime. I really apprecate being able to take a few minutes to stay current on issues that we all run into at one time or another.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:14 am
We have an admin assistant who has been here 7 years and paid as salaried. We are now planning to change her pay to hourly (and possibly part time) since she sits much of the day with nothing to do. Is there anything we need to do or know before approaching her on this? Thanks for any help.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
If a handbook states that the employer reserves the right to assign employees to a different work location on a temporary or permanent basis at any time, including one day assignments, is travel time for these instances compensable?
August 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
What about a construction employee who regularly travels to remote locations to work? Is their travel time to be included in the overtime calculation?
September 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Is it legal for a contractor to do the following:
The employee was hired as a cable installer, he gets paid commission based on how many disconnects he does, he is required to use his own vehicle. he has to pay to get a ladder rack put on his vehicle and does not get paid for mileage.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
In regards to non-exempt travel. What if you have an employee who is traveling overseas, and their travel time exceeds the normal 8 hour day? Is the total travel time considered work time and subject to OT if it causes the workweek to exceed 40 hours?
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I have a senario for you… I do payroll for a construction company. Our job sites vary from place to place usually within a 40-50 mile radius. We already have in place that anything outside this normal radius they will get 1/2 hour each way for travel, should this be ot or not? We have several employee’s that live 1.5 to 2 hours away. Upon hire they worked a deal to get 1 hour of travel time a day does that have to be paid in overtime. If not, and we have already been paying as overtime, would the employee have a case if we went back to paying it as regular time. Thanks for any assistance in this matter.