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How to Compensate Employees for Overnight Travel

A common concern among roofing contractors is when and how to compensate

employees for travel time. Many roofing contractors are unaware of the circumstances that

require them to pay employees for time spent traveling to and from work. If you mistakenly

assume the time an employee spends traveling to and from work is not compensable, you may be

surprised if you are audited by the Department of Labor and consequently required to pay large

sums for back wages and applicable interest. The most commonly misunderstood type of

employee travel requires employees to stay out of town overnight. This type of travel legally is

referred to as overnight travel.

During overnight trips, the time an employee spends traveling as a passenger during

typical work hours, including weekends, must be compensated, because the employee is

substituting travel for other duties. You are not legally obligated to compensate employees for

travel time that falls outside regular work hours except when the employee is required to drive.

For example, say a southeastern Michigan roofing contracting company with typical

work hours of 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, sends an employee to a two-day safety

training conference in Chicago. The employee travels by bus to Chicago on Wednesday from 10

a.m. to 3 p.m. The company must pay for these five hours of travel because they occur during

the employee’s typical work hours. The employee returns home by bus on Saturday traveling

from 2-7 p.m. The company must pay for the two hours from 2-4 p.m. because these hours occur

during the employee’s typical work hours. Compensation for the first two hours is required

though the employee typically does not work on Saturdays; however, the time spent traveling

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from 4-7 p.m. is not compensable because the employee is a passenger, and these travel hours fall

outside the employee’s regular working hours.

The situation would change if the employee chose to drive his or her own car rather than

take public transportation. In such a scenario, the roofing company may, but is not required to,

count the entire time the employee spends driving as hours worked. The employer is required to

compensate the employee for the driving time incurred during typical work hours.

So what happens if the employee arrives at a Chicago bus station and must drive an

additional two hours to the location of the safety training conference? In this case, because the

employee is required to drive during time outside typical work hours, the travel time is

compensable.

Consider a roofing crew that is assigned to work at an out-of-town roofing project requiring

the crew to be out of town for several weeks. In this case, assume the company’s typical work

hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The crew will be driving to the project in a

company van that leaves at 1 p.m. on Sunday, and the drive to the project site takes five hours. In

this instance, the passengers in the vehicle are to be paid for the time spent traveling from 1-3 p.m.

on Sunday because these hours fall within the roofing company’s normal work hours (even though

it is a Sunday). The time spent traveling as a passenger from 3-6 p.m. is not compensable.

However, for the driver who is assigned the task of driving the crew to the work site—therefore

requiring that person to drive—the entire time spent driving is compensable, including the time

that does not occur within the driver’s regular working hours.

Taking this example a step further, what if the crew wants to return home for the weekends

during the project? Is the time spent traveling home compensable? Whether the travel time is

compensable in this instance depends on whether the travel home is truly voluntary. Companies

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that pay for employees’ overnight lodging on the weekends are in a much better position to argue

that travel home for weekends is voluntary. On the other hand, if lodging expenses are not covered

by the company, it is unlikely the employees’ trips home on the weekends will be considered

voluntary, and, therefore, the company would need to comply with overnight travel pay

requirements.

Roofing contractors often inquire whether travel time is compensable if a company’s policy

is to pay per diem and/or mileage to employees. According to law, an employer is obligated to pay

for travel when required under the law regardless of whether an employer also offers employees per

diem and/or mileage pay.

Another issue roofing contractors frequently confront is whether to pay employees different

travel-time rates than their regular work rates. Provided an employer pays at least minimum wage

for all hours worked, traveling work time and ordinary work time, an employer can pay employees

different travel-time rates. If this is the practice adopted by your company, it should be adequately

communicated to employees in a memo, employee handbook or other communication tool, and you

should provide employees with at least 30 days advance written notice of any change in policy.

Lastly, those employers who choose to pay employees a different rate for travel time will have to

determine the regular work rate when calculating overtime pay. Compensable travel hours are

required to be counted toward the standard 40-hour workweek.

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