Is Commute Time Compensable? DOL Guidance for 3 Scenarios

Workplace flexibility is one of employees’ top demands for work-life balance, but it brings up some confusing situations.

For example, is commute time compensable under the FLSA when employees split their work time between the office and home on alternating days or the same day?

To help clear up any confusion, the DOL provided answers about whether commute time is compensable in the following scenarios involving an employee who works from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and has a one-hour commute to and from her office.

Is This Commute Time Compensable?

Scenario 1: Commute Time for Parent-Teacher Conference

The employee has a parent-teacher conference from 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. and, with permission, leaves the office at 1:00 p.m. to drive 30 minutes to the school. Afterward, she drives 30 minutes home and starts working right away or one to two hours later. Is the commuting time to and from the school compensable?

No, according to the DOL. The travel time isn’t compensable because the employee is off duty or engaged in normal commuting.

Scenario 2: Commute Time for Doctor’s Appointment

The employee has an 8:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. doctor’s appointment and works from home from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., then stops to do personal chores and leaves for her appointment at 8:00 a.m. She leaves her appointment at 9:15 a.m. and gets to her office at 9:30 a.m. She leaves work at the normal time and commutes home. No work is done once she is at home. Is the commute time from her home to the appointment, from the appointment to the office and from the office to home – where she first began working – compensable?

No, the time is not compensable. In the DOL’s view, the employee is off duty at 6:00 a.m. and her time remains non-compensable until she reaches the office and starts working again. Her commute home at the end of her workday is considered normal commuting and non-compensable.

Scenario 3: Commute Time for Split Office Days

The employee works a few hours in the office, then the rest of the day from home. Is she on the clock during her travel time home?

No, the time is not compensable. “When an employee arranges for her workday to be divided into a block worked at home and a block worked at the office, separated by a block reserved for the employee to use for her own purposes, the reserved time is not compensable, even if the employee uses some of that time to travel between the home and office,” the DOL clarified.