Imagine this. You have three “gizmo” repair workers (you are a prominent manufacturer of “gizmos”) who normally do repairs in your facility from 8am to 4pm daily Monday through Friday. A large order of gizmos that you have shipped to Philadelphia has been determined to be defective and you decide to send all three workers to Philadelphia to spend several days (8 to 4) making needed repairs. You send George, Mary, and Jose to Philadelphia at 5pm on Monday evening in a company car; Jose drives. They arrive at their hotel at 10pm. On Thursday they come home, starting at 4:30pm and arriving in Pittsburgh five hours later. Jose drives once again.
For that week, when determining overtime pay, you credit George, Mary, and Jose with ten additional work hours for the travel time on Monday and Thursday. Each of the three then have fifty hours for the week and all three are paid the additional ten hours at an overtime rate. Have you paid these folks properly?
Nope, you have overpaid! While Jose was paid properly (as he was “working” driving the car), the travel for George and Mary was travel outside of their normal working hours and those hours were not compensable!
Travel time payments are complicated under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Best to have a good attorney review your practices.
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