Do you have a job where you have been required to attend an out-of-town business meeting, training, seminar, or other event? If so, you may be wondering if your employer is required to compensate you for your time, rather than treat the excursion like a mini (working) vacation.
You may especially be wondering about your legal rights to compensation if your employer has failed to compensate you for your time spent travelling and working at these out-of-town events.
To learn more about your rights to compensation for travel, please continue reading below.
Employees’ Right to Travel Time Pay
Under California’s employment laws, when an employer requires their employee to attend a business meeting, continuing education seminar, or other event that is out-of-town, the employer cannot deny their obligation to compensate their employee for the time it took them to get to and from the location of the event.
Did you have to drive from Los Angeles to San Diego for a work-related event? Did you have to sit on a five hour flight to meet a client?
Under state law, time that an employee spends purchasing a ticket, checking in their baggage, or travelling to and from an out-of-town work event, and carrying out the employer’s directions are all considered to be “compensable.”
Simply put, employees are entitled to compensation for work-related travel.
On the other hand, the time an employee spends eating meals, sleeping, sight-seeing, or purely engaging in personal activities are not compensable under the law.
What Rate Should Travel be Paid?
How much an employee should be paid for work-related travel?
That depends on the compensation agreement between the employer and employee. For example, if the agreement stipulates that the employee is to be paid hourly, then the employee should receive their hourly rate.
Conversely, salary employees must receive overtime for any hours they work in excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week according to Labor Code Section 515.
Notcompensated for your travel time? Contact Alan Burton Newman, PLC to discuss your case with a Los Angeles employment lawyer.
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