texas travel time laws

Travel Pay for the Traveling Employee in Texas

Working a job that regularly involves traveling is tough work. The very nature of the traveling requires you to disconnect from home and family. It’s an especially difficult for those with families. It’s not just the long hours, it’s the frequent, complete disconnect from your home. In addition to the struggles of traveling, there is also the challenge of figuring out the appropriate pay structure. That can be true whether you routinely travel long distances, within north Texas, or occasionally to a conference or meeting. Today’s post will deal with the wage and overtime issues surrounding traveling work. If you believe you have an issue with unpaid wages or overtime pay as a result of work travel then you should talk to a Texas employment lawyer right away.

Table of Contents

Salaried or Commissioned Employees Who Travel in Texas

Many employees who regularly travel out of Texas receive pay by salaries or commissions rather than an hourly basis. If you are correctly paid on a salaried or commissioned basis then you are paid your flat salaried amount or commissioned earnings regardless of hours worked.

The only real issue is whether you receive correct classification as a salaried or commissioned employee. That conversation is its own tangent; but you can read more about whether your classification is appropriate here. If you have a job with regular travel then the rules around travel pay discussed below apply to you.

General FLSA Travel Pay Rules

Generally an employee who is paid hourly and is not exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Texas Payday Act must be paid at least minimum wage for each hour of work performed for the employer and must be paid one and a half times his or her regular rate of pay as overtime pay for each hour worked in the workweek over forty hours. The conflict over travel pay is what part of that time is work that entitles you to pay.

For most employees, spending time away from home for any purpose related to your employment seems like work. Employers tend to think work is when you are at the work site performing your regular job functions. Neither is entirely true. The FLSA and its administrative regulations set out rules broader than what employers would like. Unfortunately, the regulations around travel pay are less than clear. Combined with eighty years of litigation we are still trying to get this right. As of now, these are the general rules as they apply for non-exempt, hourly employees.

Home to Work Travel Rule

Generally when you travel to your normal work site or return home from work in the course of your normal workday, this time is not compensable. Your employer does not owe you money for traveling to your normal job. For employees who might be dispatched to work different days at different work sites within the same general area, the employer is not required to pay you for your travel time from home to work or work to home even when it takes you longer to travel between home and work for more distant work sites. If you travel by some method that allows you to do work while traveling, such as answering emails while riding a train, then you must receive compensation for the time you spent answering the emails. However, this is the  general travel rule and there are some incoming exceptions.

Special One Day Assignment Rule

Now if you normally work out of the same work site and your employer instructs you to work at a location that is in a different city than your normal work location and you travel to the alternative site and return home in the same day then your employer owes you pay for the travel time to the alternative site and back home less the normal length of time it takes you to travel to your normal work site and back home. Included in compensable travel time is all time spent driving or as a passenger in transit as well as time spent waiting for transit, such as waiting at an airport or rental car facility to be able to travel.

“All in a Day’s Work” Rule

Now if you work a job in which you travel between work sites during your work day then your travel is considered “all in a day’s work” and no different from any other work you perform for your employer so you must be paid for all of this travel time. One way employers commonly violate the FLSA is by ignoring this rule for employees who must travel to a company location to pick up tools and/or a company vehicle before going to the work location where that employee starts performing his or her regular job duties.

When the employee arrives at the company location, he or she has begun working and the subsequent travel time to the next work location must be included as wages, along with the travel back to the company location for the employee to drop off the employer’s property. This rule typically applies to traveling repair/installation technicians and construction workers but may apply to people in other positions.

Travel Away from Home Rule

This is the rule that applies to hourly employees who travel long distance either on a regular basis or infrequently for work purposes. If your work-related travel requires you to travel and stay away from the home community overnight then this rule will apply to the travel time. If your travel is a day trip, even if it results in a workday longer than your normal work day, then the Special One Day Assignment Rule applies to your travel time. You must receive pay for your travel time even if it cuts into days your hours that you normally would not work (such as weekends).

Under this rule, the Department of Labor will not enforce the rule for time spent as a passenger in a transportation vehicle unless you also spent that time performing other work tasks. However, if you are driving a car or waiting for your transportation then that time is compensable. This rule may not make complete sense, particularly when compared to the Special One Day Assignment Rule but it is a compromising rule for the employer and employee.

Common Employer Violations of these Travel Pay Rules in Texas

1. misclassify employees as salaried to avoid travel pay.

Just because your employer pays you on a salaried basis does not mean you are properly classified as exempt. You are not properly classified as an exempt employee merely because you travel or generally work independently. Although many traveling employees are commission or exempt under the FLSA that does not mean all employees fall into either classification.

2. Leave out time in the “all in a day’s work” rule

As discussed in the “all in a day’s work” rules explanation, employers who require employees to pick up company vehicles or equipment before performing other job responsibilities often only pay employees for work performed once they arrive at the location where the employee will perform the bulk of their job duties. That can leave the employee shortchanged pay each week for time transporting company equipment between work sites.

3. Refuse to pay travel time to conferences, meetings, etc.

Another common violation of travel pay rules occurs with employees who infrequently travel out of town. Unless you are exempt, your employer must pay travel time in conformity with the FLSA travel rules. A common excuse from employers is the travel is outside of work hours so they don’t pay for it. It does not matter when you travel. If you are traveling for work purposes then the FLSA travel rules apply, not whatever your employer feels like paying.

4. Refuse to pay overtime for travel time

If travel time is paid time under FLSA rules then that time is subject to minimum wage and overtime rules. If travel time pushes your work hours above forty then you receive overtime for each hour over forty.

Talk to a Texas unpaid wages lawyer

Paid time rules are complex and within these rules are many exceptions and specifics. If you travel for work and believe your employer may not pay you what you are entitled, then you should talk to a Texas unpaid wages lawyer right away. If your employer does not pay you all the time due, then you may have a claim for wage theft. That would allow you to recover the unpaid wages plus additional amounts. An experienced employment attorney can assess your case and determine how best to proceed.

Related Posts

Kitchen nightmares season finale and tipped employees, cosmopolitan magazine gets it right — how to ask for a raise–or what to do when the answer is no, what is an independent contractor in texas, what is the fair labor standards act, fair labor standards act & texas payday law and tipped employees, new york state court of appeals says starbucks supervisors can share in tip pool, is texas an at-will employment state dallas employment lawyer discusses, when overtime must be paid in texas.

Call today: 512.474.7677

Texas Travel Time Lawyer

There are a variety of laws and regulations, both federal and state, regarding how employers must compensate employees for workplace travel time. However, the basic thing to remember is that any travel on company business within a normal workday is compensable. Texas and federal laws protect employees travel wages so if you have any questions about these regulations and how they apply to your specific case, reach out to a qualified Texas travel time lawyer.

What the Law Says About Travel Time

The U.S. Department of Labor  (DOL) has regulations that make it mandatory for an employer to pay an employee for travel time that cuts across a normal workday, regardless of whether the travel occurs on a day the employee is usually scheduled to work. This regulation hinges on the question of whether or not the travel is considered working time.

Your normal daily commute to and from work is not considered work time travel. However, home to work travel outside of your regular commute hours may be compensable if your employer called you back to work on an emergency basis. Whether or not this is the case in your situation will depend since the courts decide what constitutes work time travel on case-by-case basis.

Compensable travel time also includes travel between worksites during a workday, travel to a temporary assignment in another city, and worked performed while traveling (i.e. from a plane or taxi). Deciding whether overnight travel time counts as compensable time can be tricky, but an Austin employment law attorney at Ross • Scalise Employment Lawyers can help. If an employee travels outside of normal working hours, even to perform a work-related duty, the time isn’t compensable.

Is Travel Time Considered Overtime?

Travel time within your normal workday or for emergency visits to work outside of normal hours is not classified as overtime. However, if travel time results in overtime hours, it may result in overtime pay depending on your employment agreement. The DOL states that travel time must be paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay unless the employer and employee have an agreement stating otherwise. For example, many employers pay employees at a lower rate than their standard pay for travel time.

Overtime calculations concerning travel time can be complex, and it might be in your best interest to hire an overtime lawyer with experience in travel time wage laws to determine if your employer is upholding your rights.

What If My Employer Doesn’t Pay Me for Travel Time?

If your travel time qualifies as paid, yet your employer fails to pay you for the time you spend traveling, you may have a case for wage theft . Employers frequently fail to pay employees for compensable travel time as defined by Texas and federal laws. In these situations, the employee can file a claim for unpaid wages and pursue lost wages in court.

If the courts find an employer guilty of wage theft, employees may be eligible to receive financial compensation for damages. Compensation can include back wages, lost wages, attorney’s fees, court costs, and other compensatory damages.

Consult a Knowledgeable Texas Travel Time Attorney

For skilled, reliable assistance with travel time and other wage dispute cases, trust the wage and hour attorneys at Ross • Scalise Employment Lawyers in Texas. Paid travel time laws can be complex, leaving you unsure of your rights as a traveling employee. For more information about travel time laws and to discuss your individual case, contact us online or by phone at 512-474-7677.

• Employment Law FAQs
• Age Discrimination
• Disability Discrimination
• Employment Contracts
• Family and Medical Leave Act Retaliation
• Hostile Work Environment
• Laid Off Employees
• Non-Compete Agreements
• Austin Unpaid Overtime Lawyer
• Failure to Pay Travel Time
• Hurricane Harvey – Unpaid Wages
• Independent Contractors and Overtime Pay
• Meal and Rest Breaks
• 6th Street Bar Wage Lawsuit in Austin
• Notice of Overtime Settlement
• Oil and Gas Field Workers
• Overtime Exemptions
• Pay Methods and Overtime
• Overtime Pay for Truck Drivers
• Unpaid Wages
• Pregnancy Discrimination
• Qui Tam / False Claims Act Claims
• Austin Police Department Race Discrimination
• Retaliation
• Severance Package Review and Negotiation
• Sex/Gender Discrimination
• Sexual Harassment
• Whistleblower’s Rights
• Workplace Bullying Claims
• Workplace Discrimination
• Wrongful Termination

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Building Your Business
• Business Taxes

When Must I Pay Employees for Travel Time?

Travel Time vs. Commuting Time

Image by Jo Zixuan Zhou © The Balance 2020 

In general, your business should pay employees for the time they spend traveling for work-related activities. You don't have to pay employees for travel that is incidental to the employee's duties and time spent  commuting  (traveling between home and work). Travel time can include both local trips and travel away from home. 

Travel vs. Commuting Time 

Commuting is going back and forth to work. Everyone (at least everyone who doesn't work at home) commutes to a job. Commuting time is personal time, not business time. The IRS does not allow businesses to deduct commuting time as a business expense, and employees should not be paid for the commuting time.     

The Department of Labor (DOL) discusses employees who drive employer-provided vehicles. The DOL considers the time spent in home-to-work travel by an employee in an employer-provided vehicle, or in activities performed by an employee that are incidental to the use of the vehicle for commuting, generally is not "hours worked" and, therefore, does not have to be paid.  

Here's a possible rule of thumb: If your business authorizes a trip by an employee, no matter how the employee travels (car, train, bus, etc.) you should pay for the employee's travel time. 

Travel time for hourly and salaried employees may be counted differently. Pay to employees for local travel time is only applicable to non-exempt (hourly) employees, not to exempt (professional or managerial) employees.     Exempt employees are paid for their expertise by the job, not by the hour.  

Different Types of Travel Time:

Home to Work Travel , as explained above, is commuting time, not work time, and it's not paid.

Travel on Special One Day Assignment in Another City. The DOL says "the time spent in traveling to and return from the other city is work time," but they note that you may deduct the time the employee would spend commuting.

Sara works in an office in your company, but you send her to another city on a special assignment. She leaves from her home, goes to the city, and comes back home the same day. She spends 3 hours traveling (1 1/2 hours each way) from home to the other city. She would normally spend 30 minutes total driving from her home to work and back, so you could deduct the 30 minutes and pay her for 2 1/2 hours of travel time.

Travel That's Part of the Employee's Normal Work. Time an employee spends traveling is part of the job. You must count this time as work time. The time the employee spends going to the first job site, and home from the last job site, is commuting time and isn't paid.  

An LPN (licensed professional nurse) works for a nursing facility and travels between the two locations of this facility, providing care for patients at both locations. Her daily travel time between these locations must be included in her pay because she is not commuting. But she can't count the time driving from home to the first location or the time back home from the last location.

Travel Away from Home. If travel includes an overnight stay it is travel time. The DOL doesn't include travel away from home outside regular hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or car as work time. But you must count hours worked on regular working days and work hours on nonworking days (weekends and holidays).  

If an employee travels from Cleveland to Pittsburgh for a two-day seminar at the direction of your company, you must pay for the hours the employee would have worked in a normal workday for each of those days, even if they were on Saturday or Sunday.

Incidental vs. Work Travel: Paid or Not Paid?

• An employee drives to work from his home every day. You ask him to stop on his way and pick up bagels for the staff meeting. This driving time is not paid. Time commuting to work is never paid time; the time to stop for the bagels is "incidental" to the commuting and is not part of the employee's job. 
• You ask an employee to drive to a store on work time to get bagels for the office meeting. If the employee makes this trip during normal work hours, he or she should be paid. 

Also, you might want to contact an employment attorney to discuss these issues. 

Paying for Travel Expenses

In addition to paying employees for travel time, you should pay their expenses for travel. The Department of Labor doesn't require reimbursement for travel expenses, but it makes sense to pay employees if you require them to travel.   Your business can deduct employee travel expenses as a business expense.   If employees mix business and personal travel, you need to sort out the part that is business-related and pay only these expenses. 

State Regulations on Paying for Employee Travel

Check with your state labor department to see if there are any rules which might override the federal rules. Contact the nearest local office of the U.S. Department of Labor for information on specific instances of travel time that affect your business.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 535 (2019): Business Expenses ," Page 5. Accessed May 26, 2020.

Internal Revenue Service. " Travel & Entertainment Expenses ," Page 3. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Travel Time ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. " Travel Time ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. " Fact Sheet: Hours of Work for Travel ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Fact Sheet #17D: Exemption for Professional Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ," Pages 1-3. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Opinion Letter FLSA 2018 ," Page 2. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Reimbursed Travel Expense Payments ," Page 1. Accessed May 26, 2020.

Internal Revenue Service. " Topic No. 511 Business Travel Expenses ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

The Supreme Court keeps on hold Florida and Texas laws seeking to limit how social media platforms regulate user content

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday kept a hold on efforts in Texas and Florida to limit how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users.

The justices returned the cases to lower courts in challenges from trade associations for the companies.

While the details vary, both laws aimed to address conservative complaints that the social media companies were liberal-leaning and censored users based on their viewpoints, especially on the political right. The cases are among several this term in which the justices are wrestling with standards for free speech in the digital age.

The Florida and Texas laws were signed by Republican governors in the months following decisions by Facebook and Twitter, now X, to cut then-President Donald Trump off over his posts related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters .

Trade associations representing the companies sued in federal court, claiming that the laws violated the platforms’ speech rights. One federal appeals court struck down Florida’s statute, while another upheld the Texas law. But both were on hold pending the outcome at the Supreme Court.

In a statement when he signed the Florida measure into law, Gov. Ron DeSantis said it would be “protection against the Silicon Valley elites.”

When Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Texas law, he said it was needed to protect free speech in what he termed the new public square. Social media platforms “are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas,” Abbott said. “That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas.”

But much has changed since then. Elon Musk purchased Twitter and, besides changing its name, eliminated teams focused on content moderation, welcomed back many users previously banned for hate speech and used the site to spread conspiracy theories.

President Joe Biden’s administration sided with the challengers, though it cautioned the court to seek a narrow ruling that maintained governments’ ability to impose regulations to ensure competition, preserve data privacy and protect consumer interests. Lawyers for Trump filed a brief in the Florida case that had urged the Supreme Court to uphold the state law.

The cases are among several the justices have grappled with over the past year involving social media platforms, including one decided last week in which the court threw out a lawsuit from Louisiana, Missouri and other parties accusing federal officials of pressuring social media companies to silence conservative points of view.

During arguments in February, the justices seemed inclined to prevent the laws from taking effect. Several justices suggested then that they viewed the platforms as akin to newspapers that have broad free-speech protections, rather than like telephone companies, known as common carriers, that are susceptible to broader regulation.

But two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, appeared more ready to embrace the states’ arguments. Thomas raised the idea that the companies are seeking constitutional protection for “censoring other speech.” Alito also equated the platforms’ content moderation to censorship.

The justices also worried about too broad a ruling that might affect businesses that are not the primary targets of the laws, including e-commerce sites like Uber and Etsy and email and messaging services.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court .

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Boil water notice still in effect for Odessa, city hopes to lift it on Monday

Power company says everyone should follow ‘20-degree’ rule when setting thermostat on hot days

Another monolith has appeared, this time in Colorado

UPDATE: Boil water notice lifted for the City of Andrews

Miranda Lambert concert is the biggest event to date at the Rockhounds Ball Park and a new chapter for the venue

Latest news.

Supreme Court rules ex-presidents have broad immunity, dimming chance of a pre-election Trump trial

LNL: Supreme Court sends former President Trump’s immunity case back to a lower court in DC

Cannabis festival looking for entrants in its joint rolling competition

Beryl makes landfall as Category 4 hurricane on Grenadine island

Quincy Wilson becomes youngest ever male track Olympian at age 16

Texas wins court block on Biden overtime pay rule

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Sandra Maler and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Thomson Reuters

Dan Wiessner (@danwiessner) reports on labor and employment and immigration law, including litigation and policy making. He can be reached at [email protected].

Read Next / Editor's Picks

Industry Insight Chevron

David Thomas

Mike Scarcella, David Thomas

Karen Sloan

Henry Engler

Mobile Menu Overlay

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

FACT SHEET: President   Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families   Together

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security – twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades – the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:

• Implementing executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when encounters are high;
• Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;
• Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;
• Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and
• Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.

President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.  Still, there is more that we can do to bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families as well as young people educated in this country, including Dreamers. That is why today, President Biden announced new actions for people who have been here many years to keep American families together and allow more young people to contribute to our economy.   Keeping American Families Together

• Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together.
• This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence – status that they are already eligible for – without leaving the country.
• These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy, providing a significant benefit to the country and helping U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.
• In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.
• Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.  
• This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

Easing the Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates, Including Dreamers

• President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the DACA policy to allow young people who were brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute to our country in significant ways. Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are now building successful careers and establishing families of their own.
• Today’s announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to more quickly receive work visas.
• Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers. 

Stay Connected

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden.

An official website of the United States government.

Here’s how you know

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Misclassification
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Pump at Work
• Maternal Health
• Retaliation
• Government Contracts
• Immigration
• Child Labor
• Agricultural Employment
• Subminimum Wage
• Employment of Workers With Disabilities
• Lie Detector Tests
• Davis Bacon Prevailing Wage Survey
• WORKER RIGHTS
• Resources For Employers
• Regulatory Library
• Interpretive Guidance
• Industry-Specific Resources
• Compliance Assistance
• elaws Advisors
• Fact Sheets
• New and Small Businesses Resources
• Presentations
• External User Portal (EUP)
• Compliance Assistance Toolkits
• New and Small Business Resources
• Publications By Language
• FLSA Compliance Videos
• Know Your Rights Video Series
• Employer.gov
• DOL Enforcement Database
• Workers Owed Wages
• Order Publications
• Laws and Regulations
• Field Handbook
• Administrator Interpretations, Opinion and Ruling Letters
• Field Bulletins
• State Minimum Wage Laws
• State Labor Law Topics
• State Labor Offices
• Resources for State and Local Governments
• NEWS RELEASES
• Travel Time
• Credit toward Wages under Section 3(m) of the FLSA for Lodging Provided to Employees
• Domestic Service Final Rule Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Domestic Service Workers Under the Fair Labor Standards Act: Fact Sheets
• Exclusion of Sleep Time from Hours Worked by Domestic Service Employees
• For Agencies and Other Employers
• For Individuals and Families
• For Workers
• Home Care: Additional Resources
• Medicaid Shared Living Programs
• Paying Minimum Wage and Overtime to Home Care Workers: A Guide for Consumers and their Families to the FLSA
• Rest Breaks and Meal Breaks
• What are the minimum wage, overtime pay, and recordkeeping requirements?

A worker who travels from home to work and returns to his or her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel which is a normal incident of employment. Normal travel from home to work and return at the end of the workday is not work time. This is true whether the employee works at a fixed location or at a different location each day. For live-in workers, home-to-work travel that is typically unpaid does not apply in this case because the employee begins and ends his or her workday at the same home in which he or she resides.

Travel that is all in a day's work, however, is considered hours worked and must be paid.

Example : Barbara is a personal care aide providing assistance to Mr. Jones. Barbara drives him to the Post Office and grocery store during the workday. Barbara is working and the travel time must be paid. Travel away from the home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday. The employee is merely substituting travel for other duties. Thus, if an employee hired to provide home care services to an individual (consumer) accompanies that consumer on travel away from home, the employee must be paid for all time spent traveling during the employee's regular working hours. As an enforcement policy, WHD will not consider as work time the time the employee spends as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus or automobile when in travel away from home outside of regular working hours. However, the employee must be paid for all hours engaged in work or "engaged to wait" while on travel. For example, an employee who is required to travel as a passenger with the consumer "as an assistant or helper" and is expected to perform services as needed is working even though traveling outside of the employee's regular work hours. However, periods where the employee is completely relieved from duty, which are long enough to enable him or her to use the time effectively for his or her own purposes, are not hours worked and need not be compensated.

Example : John is a personal attendant for Mrs. Brown, who lives in Atlanta. Mrs. Brown attends a conference in New York City and John accompanies her by plane. John normally works 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Mrs. Brown's daughter takes her to the airport where they meet John for the flight at 6:00 pm. WHD will not consider the flight time as compensable hours because it is time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane if John is completely relieved from duty. If John provides assistance to Mrs. Brown while at the airport or during the flight or must be available to assist or help as needed, he is working and must be compensated for this time.

Direct care workers who are employed by a third-party employer : Such an employee who travels from home to work and returns to his or her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel that is not compensable work time. However, travel from job site to job site during the workday, such as travel between several clients during the workday, is compensable hours worked. The third-party employer is responsible for ensuring that travel time from job site to job site is paid.

Advertisement

Supported by

Abortion Debate Shifts as Election Nears: ‘Now It’s About Pregnancy’

Two years after Roe was struck down, the conversation has focused on the complications that can come with pregnancy and fertility, helping to drive more support for abortion rights.

• Share full article

By Kate Zernike

In the decades that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, abortion rights groups tried to shore up support for it by declaring “Abortion Is Health Care.”

Only now, two years after the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, and just six months before the presidential election, has the slogan taken on the force of reality.

The public conversation about abortion has grown into one about the complexities of pregnancy and reproduction, as the consequences of bans have played out in the news. The question is no longer just whether you can get an abortion, but also, Can you get one if pregnancy complications put you in septic shock? Can you find an obstetrician when so many are leaving states with bans? If you miscarry, will the hospital send you home to bleed? Can you and your partner do in vitro fertilization?

That shift helps explain why a record percentage of Americans are now declaring themselves single-issue voters on abortion rights — especially among Black voters, Democrats, women and those ages 18 to 29 . Republican women are increasingly saying their party’s opposition to abortion is too extreme, and Democrats are running on the issue after years of running away from it.

“When the Dobbs case came down, I told my friends — somewhat but not entirely in jest — that America was about to be exposed to a lengthy seminar on obstetrics,” said Elaine Kamarck, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, referring to the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Abortion opponents say that stories about women facing medical complications are overblown and that women who truly need abortions for medical reasons have been able to get them under exceptions to the bans.

Still, a poll in April found that 46 percent of registered voters had heard stories of women forced to cross state lines to get abortions they needed because of pregnancy complications — up 11 points since September. In the latest abortion case before the Supreme Court , justices from both ends of the ideological spectrum pressed lawyers for Idaho to explain how the state could deny the procedure to a woman who was bleeding uncontrollably after her water had broken early.

The Biden campaign has dispatched six women to battleground states as it tries to mobilize voters around Monday’s two-year anniversary of the decision overturning Roe: Five were denied abortions even as they went into septic shock, became unconscious, miscarried or discovered a fetus had no skull; the sixth could not complete her plans to have a second child through I.V.F. after a ruling from Alabama’s Supreme Court shuttered clinics in the state.

Tresa Undem, who has been polling people on abortion for 25 years, estimated that before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe, less than 15 percent of the public considered abortion personally relevant — women who could get pregnant and would choose an abortion.

“Now it’s about pregnancy, and everybody knows someone who had a baby or wants to have a baby or might get pregnant,” she said. “It’s profoundly personal to a majority of the public.”

In her polls and focus groups, voters relate abortion to concerns about safety, health and medical care. Seventy-three percent of independents who support abortion rights said stories about women almost dying because of bans would affect how they vote.

“People used to talk about politicians trying to control our bodies,” she said. “Now it’s, they have no business getting involved in these medical decisions, these politicians don’t have medical expertise, they’re making these laws, and they’re not basing it on health care or science.”

Americans have generally been fuzzy on the details of reproduction. When Ms. Undem asked adults in a poll in August 2020 whether it was true that “most women get their period on the first of the month,” 75 percent got the right answer — false — but a notable 21 percent said they were “not sure.” Two months after Dobbs, 22 percent of adults said they were uncertain whether eggs inside a woman’s ovaries have shells (they do not).

But in the last two years, women have increasingly spoken out in public and on social media about pregnancy complications that could have or did end in abortion. Many had stories like that of the model Chrissy Teigen, who in September 2022 announced that she had belatedly realized that the procedure she described in an earlier social media post as a miscarriage at 20 weeks was in fact an abortion because of pregnancy complications.

Anti-abortion groups have responded by trying to carve out a difference between “elective abortion” for unwanted pregnancies — which they want banned — and “maternal fetal separation” in medical emergencies. ( The medical procedure is the same .)

“Pro-abortion Democrats resort to fear-mongering to drive their radical abortion agenda, rather than presenting women with the facts they deserve,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Still, the push by anti-abortion activists to establish that life begins at conception has aggravated concerns about how abortion bans affect popular health care procedures. Republicans in Congress rushed to defend I.V.F. this month after the Southern Baptist Convention voted to oppose it. Men and women at the convention begged other church members to support I.V.F., tearfully telling how it had allowed them to grow their families.

Opponents have long stigmatized abortion as something irresponsible women use as birth control or because they care more about their careers than having children. “When the focus shifts to the dangers that abortion bans inflict on pregnant people,” said Reva Siegel, a constitutional law professor at Yale who has written extensively about the country’s abortion conflict, “it’s easier for Americans to talk about.”

It’s not just that stories about pregnancy complications are getting more airtime. Technology and criminal law have flipped the script, she said.

Although abortion is now out of reach for millions of women, especially the poor, those with unintended pregnancies can use home tests that allow them to know they are pregnant earlier, and they can order pills for abortion online.

But for women with pregnancy complications, there are new hurdles. Before Roe legalized abortion nationally in 1973, the law allowed more leeway for what were considered “therapeutic abortions.” Doctors, often solo practitioners, could use their good faith judgment to provide them. Even the Southern Baptist Convention supported abortions in cases of fetal deformity or when a woman’s physical or mental health was at risk.

Now, the threat of prosecution, $100,000 fines and loss of their medical licenses have chilled doctors and hospital systems in treating women with pregnancy complications. More often than not in some states, lawyers are making the decisions .

“People are starting to realize how much this affects, outside of quote-unquote just abortion care,” said Dr. Nisha Verma, a complex-family-planning specialist in Georgia and a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who has testified before Congress.

In Georgia, she said, more people opposed the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy once they were told that this meant two weeks after the average woman misses her period — not, as her own partner believed, six weeks after conception. Some voters, she said, believed that six weeks meant six weeks after women found out they were pregnant.

“We don’t want to raise up only certain abortions as being worthy,” Dr. Verma said. At the same time, she added: “The ‘our body, our choice,’ we did that for a long time, it wasn’t working. Our movement’s historical messaging has a place, but it can be deeply polarizing for people who are struggling with abortion’s complexity, which is a majority of Americans.”

Kate Zernike is a national reporter at The Times. More about Kate Zernike

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.