The key to identifying whether travel time during the workday is compensable is determining whether the employees are engaged in travel as part of the employer's principal activity or for the convenience of the employer. Whether time spent traveling is paid work time for nonexempt employees depends on the type of travel involved. Travel time that is work time is subject to both the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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Download Now The Portal-to-Portal Act provides that traveling to and from where work is performed at the beginning and end of the workday is not work time (29 USC 251 to 262). Other travel time associated with an individual's performance of his or her job is paid work time. This seems like a simple distinction, but in fact, there are many cloudy areas, some of which are clarified in regulations issued by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) (29 CFR 785.33 to 785.41).