Seyfarth Synopsis: While employers usually don’t need to pay for travel time associated with an employee’s ordinary commute, federal and California law create exceptions that employers should know—particularly when company policy requires a certain type of transportation.
For many of us, automobile traffic—at least during the B.C. (before covid) era—has been as synonymous with California as its sunny weather
Continue Reading Payroll Potholes: Paying for Travel Time
Seyfarth Synopsis: Travel time pay is a nebulous area of the law that can leave many employers stalled on the starting blocks. Here are some guidelines to help ensure that employees get paid for all hours worked, including any compensable travel time.
Ready. Set. Not so fast.
It makes common sense to most people that commute time—the time an employee
Continue Reading The Fast, the Furious, the Fundamentals: Travel Pay in California
By Dana Peterson and David Rosenberg
In today’s increasingly mobile workplace, employers often require their non-exempt employees to head out of the office for such things as client meetings, off-site events and training. Understanding when you must pay employees when they’re on the move might help you avoid a train wreck down the road (pun intended.)
The basics. If you’ve been following our blog with any regularity, the following should come as no surprise: when determining whether travel time is compensable, the applicable California and federal standards differ quite a bit. For instance, federal law defines “hours worked” as: (a) all time during which an employee is required to be on duty or be on the premises or workplace of the employer, and (b) all time during which an employee is “suffered or permitted to work,” whether or not the employee is required to do so.
By contrast, California defines the term “hours worked” as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer, and includes all time the employee is suffered or permitted to work, whether or not required to do so.” I.W.C. Wage Orders, Section 2 (emphasis added). Therefore, employees must be compensated for time that they are “subject to the control” of the employer, even if they are not “suffered or permitted to work” during that time.
Enough with the legal jargon, when do I need to pay for travel time?
Continue Reading When Hitting the Road is Hitting your Pocketbook: Travel Time Rules in California