Q: My employer is requiring me to travel for a conference. What travel time should be paid?
I will be traveling from KS to FL. It will be approximately 12-15 hours of travel time in 48 hours, in addition to an 8 hour conference. This is a required event. The first half of the trip will be during work hours, the second half after the conference will not be. How much of this travel time, if any, must be compensated?
A: Well, in THEORY, the travel time is working time and your are entitled to be paid for it. In practice, the best thing for you to do is to discuss this with your employer beforehand and have an agreement as to how much you will be paid. Consider, how much would you have been paid if you were working on the job during this time? i.e.- of you are gone for 2 days and your usual work day is 8 hours, you may have lost 8 hours of pay. Maybe you can do some work for the employer on a laptop while traveling, which will make them feel better about paying you for this time. Better to have an agreement about it in advance- IN WRITING, than get into a fight about it after the fact. If you end up forcing the employer to pay you, and he thinks you have taken advantage of him in the situation (employers are often feeling this) you may find your working situation deteriorates after the conference. I recommend you contact several attorneys in your area that practice this type of law, as soon as possible. Thank you for using Justia ask a lawyer.
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