Travel Time & Mileage

For employers

Are employers required to pay workers for regular home-to-work/work-to-home travel?

No, unless the employer has a policy or contract promising pay for such travel.

Is the employer required to pay workers for travel time from one job site to another in the course of a day’s work?

Yes, if workers must travel to accomplish the day’s work. Examples include landscape maintenance employees or appliance repair persons who travel from site to site during the day.

If an employer allows an employee to take a company vehicle home, does the employer have to pay for travel time from home to the job site and vice versa?

No, as long as the employee performs no work duties until reaching the first work site. This is considered normal home-to-work/work-to-home travel, and the time needn’t be compensated.

If I require my employee to stop at one location at the beginning of the work day to receive instructions or to pick up tools or a company vehicle before reporting to the actual work site, do I have to pay any of the travel time?

Yes. The travel from the employee’s home to the first location does not need to be compensated, since it falls under the portal-to-portal rule. But once the employee arrives at the first required location, the employee is "on the clock" and the subsequent travel time is compensable.

I sent an employee from my Portland office to train new-hires at our Salem branch. The employee did not stay overnight in Salem and returned home the same day. Must I pay for the travel time?

Yes. Because the one-day assignment was to a city beyond a 30-mile radius of the employee’s official work station, the travel time involved is compensable.

My employee frequently works at different locations and doesn’t have a fixed official work station. Do I have to pay her time when she travels more than 30 miles to a worksite?

No. The "special one-day assignment" rule applies only when an employee has a fixed official work location. Your employee’s travel time thus falls under the portal-to-portal rule and needn’t be compensated, even when she travels to remote locations for the day.

When is travel on an overnight trip considered work time that must be compensated?

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. 

Example: 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. The employer must pay for these six hours of travel time, since they cut across Chet's normal work hours. Chet returns home by bus on Saturday, traveling from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The employer must pay for the three hours between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m., the travel time which cuts across Chet's normal work hours. This is required even though Chet does not normally work on Saturdays. 

Example: Jane'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. Since Jane is traveling as a passenger outside of normal work hours, the employer needn't pay for any of the travel time. Example: Peter, 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, Peter 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. In this case, the employer must pay for 10 hours of travel time -- the five hours of air travel which cut across Peter's normal work hours, plus the five hours of car travel which fall outside of Peter's normal work hours, since he is required to drive during that time. 

Example: Donna normally works the graveyard shift, from 12:00 midnight to 8:00 a.m. Donna's supervisor assigns her to travel to California for a week-long business trip. The supervisor offers Donna a bus ticket for travel from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., but Donna chooses to drive her private vehicle instead. In this case, since Donna 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 Donna accepted the bus ticket.

Does the government set a required mileage rate for employees that drive between job sites?

Yes and No. Yes, the federal government does set a mileage rate for its employees, but no, unless you happen to be the federal government, you are not required to pay mileage to your employees at the federal rates. 

In fact, wage and hour laws do not require employers to pay mileage to their employees at all. 

That said, under Oregon’s Minimum Wage Law (ORS 653) employers are prohibited from requiring employees to shoulder the expense of required items if doing so has the effect of reducing their wages below minimum wage. 

So if on the job travel is an item that you require, related expenses like fuel and vehicular wear and tear cannot have the effect of reducing an employee’s wages below minimum wage for all hours worked. Paying an agreed upon rate per mile driven is one way of preventing a potential minimum wage violation.

Is an employer obligated under wage and hour laws to pay employees for per diem expenses (hotel, restaurants, mileage, etc.)?

Generally, no. But an employer must cover per diem expenses when requiring the employee to pay them would have the effect of bringing the employee below minimum wage for the pay period. (Minimum wage employees may never be required to pay per diem expenses.)

If the employer does pay per diem and/or mileage to employees, must the employer still pay for travel time?

Yes, the regular travel rules still apply.

Does the employer have to pay travel time when the employer arranges for a company vehicle to pick up employees and deliver them to the job site?

Provided the employees are not required to report at a meeting place to receive instructions or to perform other work there or to pick up and carry tools, this is still considered normal home-to-work/work-to-home travel. The driver of the company vehicle is the only person actually performing work and therefore the only employee to whom travel time pay is due.

May the employer pay a different rate for travel time than for hours worked at the employee's regular rate?

Yes, as long as the employer pays at least minimum wage for all hours worked. If an employer intends to pay travel time at a rate lower than the regular hourly rate, the employer should clearly advise employees of the policy in advance.

Do compensable travel hours have to be included when calculating overtime?

Yes. Compensable travel hours must be counted for purposes of calculating whether an employee has performed more than 40 hours of work in a single workweek.