Workforce Bulletin

As COVID-19 restrictions have continued to loosen or be lifted altogether, employees have gradually resumed working in the office—and traveling away from it for work-related reasons.  When it comes to travel time in the employment context, the answer to the question, “Do I need to pay for that?” often has no straightforward answer.  Rather, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulations, whether time an employee spends traveling is compensable depends on the type of travel.  In this month’s Time Is Money segment, we provide a refresher on when and how employers must pay employees for travel time.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) has issued an opinion letter addressing the compensability of a long-haul truck driver time in a truck’s sleeper berth during multi-day trips.  While this question is highly fact-specific, the WHD’s response offers a useful refresher on the widely applicable Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) concepts of compensability of waiting, sleeping, and traveling time.

In Opinion Letter FLSA2019-10, issued on July 23, 2019, the employer operates a fleet of trucks, licensed by the Department of Transportation to ...

By:   Jordan Schwartz

Like many attorneys, I spend a significant amount of time traveling, whether it is to meet with clients, take depositions, or conduct training sessions. Business-related travel certainly is not unique to the legal industry. In fact, more and more employees in other industries, including the hospitality industry, are spending a greater amount of time traveling for work than ever before. Such travel typically includes attending out-of-state trade shows, recruiting visits, job fairs, and sales calls. As an exempt employee, compensation for travel ...