FLSA: Compensable Travel Time
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulates what constitutes compensable time or hours worked. Under the FLSA, compensable time includes all work an employer “permits” its employees to work. This may occasionally include an employee’s travel time.
In addition, a workday begins when an employee starts their principal activity and ends when he or she finishes his or her last principal activity of the day. Therefore, the amount of compensable time during a workday may be longer than the employee’s scheduled shift, hours, or production line time.
The FLSA also dictates that employers must pay their employees for all hours worked. An employee’s pay must be at least the current federal minimum wage rate for the first 40 hours of work during a workweek and one and one-half times his or her regular rate of pay for any hours he or she works over 40 during a workweek.
Compensable time may include:
- Traveling from home to a customer’s workplace in emergency situations;
- Travel that is all in a day’s work;
- Traveling from home to a special one-day assignment in another city;
- Overnight travel away from home; and
- Traveling away from home in a private vehicle.
We are including a Compliance Overview document below for more details. If you have questions or need assistance, please call The Flanders Group at 800-462-6435.