Travel Time Between Job Sites: Are You Owed Paid Hours?

If you work in home healthcare, field maintenance, construction, or multi-location retail, traveling during the workday is often a core part of your job. You might drive from one patient's home to another, move between store branches, or haul equipment to a second client site. What many hourly workers don't realize is that federal labor law explicitly mandates that travel time between job sites during your shift is paid work time.

1. What Counts as Paid Travel Time Under the FLSA?

Under federal regulations enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor (29 CFR § 785.38), travel time between job sites during the workday is compensable work time. When an employee travels from one worksite to another after their first clock-in of the day, that travel time must be counted as hours worked and paid at their regular hourly rate.

• Job-to-Job Travel Is Paid: Driving, riding, or transit time between client locations or job sites during your shift must be included on your paycheck.
• Counts Toward Overtime: Because travel between job sites counts as hours worked, those travel hours count toward your 40-hour weekly threshold for time-and-a-half overtime pay.
• Employer Duties Covered: If you are required to pick up tools, keys, or patient records at an office before heading to a job site, your paid workday starts the moment you arrive at that office.

2. Ordinary Commute vs. Workday Travel: Key Differences

Understanding where your commute ends and paid travel begins is essential under the Portal-to-Portal Act:

• Ordinary Home-to-Work Commute (Unpaid): Driving from your home to your first job site in the morning, or traveling back home from your last job site at night, is personal commuting and generally not paid.
• Workday Travel Between Sites (Paid): Once your workday starts at your first location, any travel required to reach a second, third, or fourth site during your shift is paid work time.
• Special One-Day Assignments: If your employer sends you to a temporary job site in another city for a day, the extra travel time beyond your normal daily commute must be compensated.

3. How Unpaid Travel Time Shortchanges Your Overtime Pay

Leaving travel hours off your timecard doesn't just short you on basic wages—it frequently leads to unpaid overtime. For example, if you work 36 site hours plus 6 hours driving between locations in a week, you worked 42 hours total. Under the FLSA, your employer owes you 40 straight-time hours plus 2 overtime hours at 1.5x pay.

4. 3 Steps to Protect Your Travel Pay Today

1. Log Arrival and Departure Times at Every Site: Record the exact minute you leave site A and the minute you arrive at site B rather than lumping shift hours together.
2. Keep Mileage or Travel Logs: Note trip distances and transit durations for each workday travel segment.
3. Compare Your WageFlow Export Against Your Official Pay Stub: Export a monthly PDF or CSV report from WageFlow and cross-check your total hours worked against your employer's pay stub.

This is general information, not personalized tax or legal advice — check with a tax professional or your state labor office for your situation.