The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (DOL) recently issued two opinion letters addressing a deceptively simple question: When does an employee's commute become compensable work time? The two opinion letters, FLSA2026-9 and FLSA2026-10, are particularly relevant as employers continue to offer flexible and hybrid work arrangements. Together, they provide helpful guidance for determining when travel between an employee's home and workplace remains an unpaid commute and when work performed before or during that travel may turn some or all of the travel into compensable time.
The Good News for Hybrid Work: A Mid-Day Commute Can Still Be Unpaid
In FLSA2026-9, the DOL addressed non-exempt employees who split their workday between home and the office. The employer wanted to give employees flexibility to work from home for part of the day and commute at their convenience but was concerned that once an employee began working at home, the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA's) "… Read the complete article here...
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