The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued two opinion letters addressing a question that has become increasingly complicated as work arrangements have changed: When does an employee's commute become compensable work time?
For most employees, the general rule is familiar. Ordinary travel between home and work typically is not considered hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
But what happens when an employee works from home in the morning and drives to the office later?
Or when a field employee receives assignments at home and begins making customer calls before driving to the first job?
Two opinion letters issued by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division on July 22, 2026 provide employers with additional guidance on how existing wage and hour rules may apply in these situations.
For employers managing hybrid, remote, mobile and field-based employees, the letters are an important reminder:
Determining when the workday begins may be more complicated than determining when an employee arrives at a workplace.
Under the FLSA, an employee's ordinary travel between home and work generally is not considered compensable work time.
Travel that occurs as part of an employee's principal work activities during the workday, however, generally is compensable.
For example, an employee's normal morning drive from home to the workplace usually isn't paid time.
But travel from one job site to another during the workday generally is.
The challenge for employers is determining where that line falls when employees perform work from home, begin job-related activities before leaving home or conduct business while traveling.
That's what the DOL addressed in its two new opinion letters.
The first opinion letter, FLSA2026-9, addressed a hybrid work arrangement.
The employees in the scenario were permitted to work from home and could voluntarily choose to split their workday between home and the employer's office.
For example, an employee could:
Employees might choose this arrangement for personal convenience, such as avoiding rush-hour traffic.
That raises an important question:
According to the DOL's analysis of the circumstances presented in the opinion letter, no.
The Wage and Hour Division concluded that the mid-day travel could still be considered noncompensable home-to-work commuting.
Several facts were important.
The hybrid arrangement was voluntary. Employees chose when to work from home and when to travel to the office. They were not required to perform work during the commute, and the arrangement primarily benefited employees by providing flexibility.
In those circumstances, the DOL concluded that the drive between the employee's home and office did not automatically become compensable simply because the employee performed work at home before traveling.
Hybrid work does not necessarily mean every trip between an employee's home and office during the day becomes paid travel time.
But employers should pay attention to the facts.
Ask:
Those details can matter when determining whether travel time is compensable.
The second opinion letter, FLSA2026-10, addressed a different situation.
The employee was a field service technician who traveled from home directly to customer locations.
Before beginning the drive, the employee could receive information about assigned jobs. The employee also performed activities related to scheduling and coordinating those jobs.
The distinction between those activities became important.
The DOL concluded that simply receiving information about an assignment, without more, did not necessarily constitute compensable work under the circumstances presented.
In other words, receiving a notification telling an employee where to go isn't automatically the same as performing the employee's principal job duties.
But the analysis changed when the employee began performing substantive job-related activities.
The field technician also made calls to customers or coworkers to coordinate appointments.
The DOL determined that these calls were integral and indispensable to the employee's principal activities in the circumstances presented.
That means the calls themselves were compensable work.
And that distinction matters because beginning a principal activity can affect how subsequent travel is treated under the FLSA.
For employers, this creates an important compliance question:
What are your nonexempt employees doing before they begin their commute?
An employee who simply checks where the first job is located may present one situation.
An employee who begins actively coordinating customer appointments, performing required administrative tasks or otherwise conducting substantive business before leaving home may present another.
Employers should also pay attention to work employees perform while traveling.
Today's employees can perform work from almost anywhere.
They can:
That flexibility can be useful, but it can also blur the boundary between commuting and working.
The DOL's new guidance reinforces why employers need clear expectations about when nonexempt employees are permitted or expected to perform work.
The question isn't simply:
"Is the employee commuting?"
Employers may also need to ask:
"Is the employee working during the commute?"
Traditional wage and hour rules were easier to visualize when most employees arrived at one workplace, clocked in, performed their jobs and clocked out before driving home.
Today's workforce can look very different.
Employees may start the morning at home, visit multiple job sites, work remotely for part of the day or communicate with customers before ever arriving at a physical workplace.
That makes it increasingly important for employers to understand when compensable work begins and ends.
Industries with mobile or field-based employees may want to pay particularly close attention, including:
Hybrid employers should also review how employees split their work between home and the workplace.
The new DOL opinion letters provide a good opportunity to review your organization's practices.
Look beyond formal clock-in times.
Employees may be answering work-related calls, coordinating appointments or completing required tasks before they begin traveling.
If employees are expected to make calls, participate in meetings or perform other work while traveling, employers should evaluate whether that time needs to be recorded and compensated.
Employers should also consider safety when establishing policies around work performed while driving.
If employees have flexibility to move between home and the workplace, establish clear expectations about work schedules, travel and timekeeping.
Timekeeping processes should make it easy for nonexempt employees to record compensable work regardless of where that work occurs.
Managers may unintentionally create problems by asking employees to handle tasks before their recorded workday begins or after it ends.
Training managers on off-the-clock work can be just as important as training employees.
No.
The DOL did not announce a new rule making ordinary commuting time compensable.
Ordinary home-to-work travel generally remains noncompensable under the FLSA.
Instead, these opinion letters illustrate how existing wage and hour principles can apply when work and commuting overlap.
And because opinion letters address specific factual circumstances, employers shouldn't assume that the conclusion reached in one scenario automatically applies to every workplace arrangement.
The details matter.
Generally, no. Ordinary home-to-work travel typically is not considered compensable work time under the FLSA.
Not necessarily. In Opinion Letter FLSA2026-9, the DOL concluded that certain voluntary mid-day travel between home and the office could remain noncompensable commuting time under the specific circumstances presented.
Not necessarily. In FLSA2026-10, the DOL distinguished between simply receiving assignment information and performing substantive activities that were integral and indispensable to the employee's principal work.
Depending on the employee's job and the nature of the activity, those calls may constitute compensable work. In FLSA2026-10, the customer and coworker calls at issue were considered integral and indispensable to the employee's principal activities.
Generally, travel that is part of an employee's principal activity, such as traveling from one job site to another during the workday, is considered hours worked under the FLSA.
Yes. Employers with nonexempt remote, hybrid, mobile or field employees should consider whether their policies clearly address working time, travel, off-the-clock work and timekeeping.
The Department of Labor's new opinion letters don't fundamentally change the rules surrounding commute time.
They do highlight how much more complicated those rules can become in a flexible workplace.
For employers, the takeaway is simple:
Don't focus only on where an employee is working. Pay attention to when the employee actually begins performing work.
Now is a good time to review your organization's timekeeping practices, hybrid and remote work expectations, manager training and policies surrounding work performed before or after an employee's scheduled day.
Clear policies and accurate timekeeping can help employers support workplace flexibility while reducing unnecessary wage and hour risk.
Disclaimer: This blog is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice.
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