On overnight trips, all the time an employee spends traveling during normal work hours must be compensated even on weekends. An employer is not legally obligated to compensate for travel time that falls outside of the employee’s regular work hours, except when the employee is required to drive.
Four examples are offered to clarify when travel time is covered:
Example 1: Chet´s regular work schedule is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. His employer requires him to attend a two-day business conference in Boise, Idaho. Chet travels by bus on Wednesday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and then returns home by bus on Saturday, traveling from 2:00pm to 8:00pm. Is this travel time covered?The employer must pay for these six hours of travel time between 10:00am and 4:00pm, since they cut across Chet´s normal work hours.The employer must pay for the three hours between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m., since the travel time cuts across Chet´s normal work hours. This is required even though Chet does not normally work on Saturdays.
Example 2: Marisol´s regular work schedule is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Her employer sends her from Portland to a work-related weekend convention in Chicago on a Friday night “red-eye” flight from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Is this travel time covered? Since Marisol is traveling as a passenger outside of normal work hours, the employer needn´t pay for any of the travel time.
Example 3: Zhang Wei, whose regular work schedule is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, travels by plane to an out-of-state business meeting. The air travel takes place from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. At the airport, Zhang Wei is required to pick up a rental car and drive an additional five hours to reach the remote city where the meeting will take place. Is this travel time covered? In this case, the employer must pay for 10 hours of travel time — the five hours of air travel which cut across Zhang Wei´s normal work hours, plus the five hours of car travel which fall outside of Zhang Wei´s normal work hours, since he is required to drive during that time.
Example 4: Nada normally works the graveyard shift, from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 a.m. Nada’s supervisor assigns her to travel to California for a week-long business trip. The supervisor offers Nada a bus ticket for travel from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., but Nada chooses to drive her private vehicle instead. Is this travel time covered? In this case, since Nada was offered transportation as a passenger and was not required to drive, the employer may choose to pay Donna for all of the hours she spends driving her car, but is only legally obligated to pay for the two hours of travel from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. — the time that would have been compensable had Nada accepted the bus ticket.
