What are my rights if I work for a company where traveling between sites is part of the job?
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What are my rights if I work for a company where traveling between sites is part of the job?
A company car has been provided and I pick other employees up, drive them between sites and take them back at the end of the day. Things happen in my daily job that I question the legality of. For one thing, I do not get paid for anytime picking people up and dropping them off. I clock in when we all arrive to the first job site clock out when last job is. Also, from there we get paid $7.40 an hour between jobsites. That is below state minimum wage. Finally, my employer seperates drive time from “straight” time. Meaning if I work 38 hours at a site and 8 hours travel time in a week i do not get paid any over time. Is she indeed breaking labor laws or i am misinformed?
Asked on January 11, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
You're mostly, but not entirely, right in what you seem to believe:
1) Even if you pick up others to bring them to work, or drop them off after work, you don't need to be paid for the time spent communting to work in the morning or home from work at the end of the day. Travel in between, you should be paid for.
2) If you are an hourly employee, you must be paid the greater of state or federal minimum wage for all hours worked. That doesn't mean you can't be paid less for drive time than for other work, but it still needs to be at least minimum.
3) Even when you do differnet things during the work day or are paid at different rates, add all your hours together to see when you are owed overtime; if you work 38 hours at a site and 8 hours of travel that you should be paid for, so 46 hours that week, you would earn 6 hours of overtime, which would paid at a weighted blended rate calculated from your two different pay rates.
You may be owed a considerable sum of money, from less-than minimum wage pay and not being paid overtime. You may wish to contact your state department of labor to explore filing a complaint.
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