Is business travel time working time?

There are many factors dictating whether or not an employee must be com­pen­sat­ed for travel hours during a business trip in the USA. These factors include leg­is­la­tion, terms of contract and labor agree­ments. While it may seem unfair that workers are not routinely com­pen­sat­ed for traveling time on business trips they are un­der­tak­ing at the behest of the company, it is often the norm. This can have a tough impact on the payslips of employees who are required to travel for work fre­quent­ly, es­pe­cial­ly abroad since travel times can last many hours. It also dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affects higher earners, since those in more senior positions are often the ones required to attend con­fer­ences and meetings with clients to represent their company.

In recent years, several other countries have ex­pe­ri­enced court rulings deeming business travel time to count as working time. While the US has much more relaxed labor laws than many of their European coun­ter­parts, it is important to be aware of the dif­fer­ences in working time reg­u­la­tions if you are running a company that operates in multiple countries.

In the USA, the re­mu­ner­a­tion of travel times for business trips is regulated in­di­vid­u­al­ly. If you have a generous employer, they are likely to consider travel time on business trips to be working time and com­pen­sate you as such: i.e. the entire business trip is con­sid­ered to be working time. However, these agree­ments usually have to be ne­go­ti­at­ed sep­a­rate­ly. If one is applying for a job that is known to have high levels of work travel time, it is rec­om­mend­ed to negotiate the terms of business trips and legally enshrine them in the in­di­vid­u­als‘ working contract from the very beginning to avoid any confusion. In some companies, working time during business trips is already outlined in labor agree­ments and col­lec­tive agree­ments and may apply ac­cord­ing­ly to all or only certain employees.

However, there are many instances when no legal rules apply to whether or not travel times are con­sid­ered working time and whether these periods should be com­pen­sat­ed, and by how much. In practice, the case is usually that the only hours which count as working time are the same hours the employee would normally work, e.g. 9 am to 5 pm. This means that if a business trip flight lasts three hours and begins at 7 am, the employee would be com­pen­sat­ed for the final hour of 9-10 am since this falls within their normal working hours, but the first two hours are unpaid. However, if your work superiors request that you spend the flight doing work (e.g. preparing pre­sen­ta­tion slides or cor­re­spond­ing via e-mail), then those hours can be con­sid­ered overtime.

There are certain ex­cep­tions to these rules if a worker’s activity consists of a sig­nif­i­cant amount travel time (i.e. a primary oblig­a­tion), such as truck drivers or traveling sales­peo­ple. Companies may also have differing policies for domestic and foreign travel.

Another factor which may impact re­mu­ner­a­tion for an employee during business travel time is whether or not they are covered the FLSA. FLSA governs the wages are overtime reg­u­la­tions for employees that are paid hourly in the US. According to FLSA, the time taken traveling to and from work does not count as travel time. This means that if you are going on a business trip, the time taken traveling to the airport does not count as work time, since in the eyes of the FLSA, you are traveling to work. However, time spent waiting for the plane, flying on the plane and traveling to the hotel/meeting place once you have arrived does count as working time, since arriving at the airport initially is con­sid­ered your arrival at work.

FLSA dictates that the legal working week consists of 40 hours over seven days. Anything over this is con­sid­ered overtime and must be com­pen­sat­ed at a payment rate of time-and-a-half. Trips made for business often result in overtime being incurred, and employees must be com­pen­sat­ed for this. This rule does not apply to those not covered by FLSA, i.e. salaried pro­fes­sion­al or executive employees earning in excess of $455 per week.

Case study 1:

A delivery service driver has a con­trac­tu­al­ly stip­u­lat­ed working time of 6 am to 2:30 pm daily. At 6a m, they pick up their service vehicle from the company garage and drive to the central warehouse, where the vehicle is loaded with goods from 6:30 am. After the final delivery at 2:30 pm, the driver drives back to the company premises, where they cannot park their vehicle until 4 pm due to heavy traffic at the parking lot. In this case, the total working time from 6 am to 4 pm could be con­sid­ered working time, since the employee would not be able to carry out their work duties without the travel time. It can, therefore, be con­sid­ered the main oblig­a­tion.

Case study 2:

An insurance company employee is sent out to meet with a client who, due to un­fore­seen cir­cum­stances, is unable to come to the insurance company office. Meeting clients outside the office is generally outside of the employee’s remit. The employee’s usual work hours are between 8 am and 5 pm. The client meeting lasts from 4 pm to 5:30 pm, and then the employee drives straight home without first returning to work.

In this instance, only the 30 minutes spent meeting the customer count as work overtime. The return journey is not con­sid­ered working time since the employee is returning home instead of back to work. If the employee’s manager had contacted them and requested that they return to the office to work late and write an ad­di­tion­al report about the meeting, then the drive back to the office would have been con­sid­ered working time, and been com­pen­sat­ed ac­cord­ing­ly.

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