WASHINGTON D.C — Many employees have job requirements that require them to travel during the work day. This could be travel by car between offices or on the road calling on clients and customers. This could also involve air travel to corporate offices or meetings in other cities and countries.
Too often, the employee is not paid overtime for travel during the work day. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires your employer to pay you for time spent traveling during normal work hours. So, if your job requires you to travel, you most likely should be paid for that time.
Travel time to and from the employees actual place of employment or principal activity generally does not count as “hours worked” toward determining whether overtime pay is due. This is often referred to as “ordinary home to work travel.” However, travel between job sites during the work day is considered “hours worked” or rather work time and requires appropriate payment.
For example, if an employee is required to leave the employer’s premises and travel to another job site to perform work the travel time spent between the employer’s premises and other location is considered hours worked and the employee must be compensated. If the employee leaves the job site and is required to return to the employer location, that is considered hours worked and overtime pay is required.
When an employer requires that an employee travel on an out of town assignment that requires an overnight stay, the travel time is called “travel away from home” and is considered work time when it cuts across the employee’s workday. This includes hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours and on non-working days, such as weekends. For example, if an employee regularly works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday the time spent traveling between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on any day of the week, including the weekends, is considered hours worked and requires payment.
Companies violate the FLSA by not paying its employees for all hours worked in a workweek, including travel time. Under certain circumstances, some travel time may be exempt from the FLSA requirements. Additionally, some states may have their own overtime pay laws that may be slightly
An experienced overtime pay attorney can determine whether you are entitled to overtime wages based upon your job description, job duties, rate of pay, and number of hours worked. There are strict time deadlines for filing lawsuits so it is essential that you contact an attorney immediately.
To determine whether you are eligible for filing a wage claim, contact our experienced Overtime Pay Lawyers at (855) 754-2795 for a Free Consultation to discuss your case or complete the Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review Form on this page. We will discuss your situation and determine if you have a claim. If you are owed unpaid wages, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise, which means there are never any legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.