Does my employer have to pay my full drive time?
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Does my employer have to pay my full drive time?
My work location is considered remote and I have a
take home work vehicle and my employer is trying to
say they aren’t paying us our first hour drive time
anymore. Is this legal
Asked on May 15, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Georgia
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
A worker is not entitled to pay for their commute to their "office"; this can be wherever they regullarly report to work, no matter how far it may be from their home. Additionally, if a particular work location is not their "office" but is rather is a client's location or where a particular job is being done, then the employer need not pay for the time that equal to how long the employee's regular commute time is. They only need pay for any additional time that it takes to get there. So if an employee regularly commutes 1/2 hour but the work location is 1 hour away, then the worker need only be paid 1/2 drive time.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
To oversimplify--because this can be a complex and subjective area--as a general rule:
1) If the work location is your regular actual duty station--basically your "office" or "warehouse" or wherever you regularly work--then no matter how far it is, you are not paid for travel to/from it; that is simply your regular commute.
2) If the work location is not your regular "office" but is a client's location, or where a job is being done, they do not have to pay you for an amount of travel more or less equal to how long it would take you to commute to work (the employer basically gets an amount of travel equal to what your commute would be "free"). So if it would take you, say, an hour to commute to work, but now you are going to a location or job site an hour-and-three-quarters away, they would not have to pay you for that first hour, since that's equal to what your commute would be.
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