After limiting work-related travel due to the pandemic, many employers are sending their employees to out-of-town sales meetings, conferences, and trainings. Here are the rules of the road for compensating California employees for work-related travel.
Non-exempt employees must be compensated for employer-mandated travel time
Employees exempt from overtime rules, such as executives, professionals, and high-level administrators, are paid a set salary of at least twice the state hourly minimum wage to perform their duties, however long it takes. They are not entitled to extra compensation for traveling on business.
Under the governing state wage orders, non-exempt employees, whether paid by the hour or by salary, are entitled to be paid for all “hours worked,” including “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer. ...” That includes time spent on employer-mandated travel.
DLSE guidance on compensating work-related travel
In 2002, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) issued opinion letter 2002.02.21, whose guidance was later incorporated into the agency’s enforcement manual, reviewing the legality of an employer policy that provided that “Time spent traveling as a passenger on a plane, train, bus, car, or taxicab to a business destination outside [an employee’s] normal business hours is not considered to be paid time.” The DLSE concluded the policy violated California law, even if it might pass partial muster under the...
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