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Is
travel time covered by minimum wage and overtime requirements?
Is travel time hours worked? Of course, travel from home to
the office and back home (commuting) is not hours worked, but
all travel time once the day starts is. So a trip from the office
to another town and back in the same day is all considered hours
worked.
What about traveling out of town to attend seminars? Under the
wage and hour regulations, overnight travel away from home is
considered work time when it cuts across the employee's regular
work day.
Thus, if an employee really works from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
from Monday through Friday, any travel time during those hours
is work time. If they travel before 8:00 a.m. or after 5:00
p.m., it is not considered work time. Interestingly, even when
an employee travels on Saturday or Sunday, if the travel time
cuts across the regular work day (8:00 to 5:00), those hours
are considered hours worked even though the employee does not
normally work on Saturday or Sunday. One way to avoid the payment
to employees for travel time is to require them to travel outside
their regularly scheduled work hours.
For more information on wage hour questions, contact the attorney
you work with at Coffman Coleman, or
any attorney at our office can assist you.
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