Morning Commutes vs. Compensable Travel: NJ's Rules on When the Drive to Work Becomes 'Hours Worked'

Most employees aren’t paid for their normal commute to and from work. The legal issue usually depends on when driving becomes part of the employee’s actual job duties. 

Many employees describe the same pattern to our attorneys at Brandon J. Broderick: traveling between job sites and reporting to distant locations without being paid for their time. Some employers assume all travel time counts as an ordinary commute. The issue changes when the job requires it. In some situations, what appears to be a normal commute may legally count as compensable work time. 

Driving time may become compensable when the travel mainly benefits the employer or takes place after the employee’s workday has effectively begun. 

In this article, we discuss how state and federal law separate normal commuting from paid time, when driving becomes part of the workday, and when it may help to consult a wage and hour lawyer in New Jersey. 

Commute Time and Compensable Travel Rules in New Jersey

Most employees in New Jersey don’t get paid for driving from home to work in the morning. Federal wage law generally treats ordinary commuting as personal time. The rule comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A warehouse employee driving 45 minutes to a distribution center usually isn’t working during that drive. Distance or traffic doesn’t change the law.

Ordinary commuting is treated differently from travel tied directly to job duties. Employers sometimes blur the distinction. Some workers may drive company vehicles or be monitored through  GPS tracking. But a company car doesn’t automatically make this period compensatable. Under 29 C.F.R. Part 785, regular commuting isn’t paid. Employees driving employer vehicles may still fall under that rule. 

Some employers expect workers to remain reachable during the commute, answer occasional messages, or maintain on-call availability. Brief tasks such as checking a dispatch update don’t qualify as compensable work. The analysis changes once employees begin handling meaningful job duties before arriving at the workplace. 

New Jersey follows federal wage-and-hour standards. New Jersey wage law requires payment for all hours employees work. Employers must also pay overtime after 40 hours in a workweek. Exemptions are narrow.

Some jobs involve changing locations rather than one fixed workplace. Construction crews, field technicians, home health aides, cable installers, and maintenance workers rarely spend the entire day in one building. Travel becomes intertwined with the work itself.

Important facts include:

• driving directly from home to work
• required reporting locations before the first assignment
• transporting or retrieving work materials
• driving between assignments once the workday is underway

Employer control doesn’t automatically turn all driving into paid working time. Courts focus on when the employee’s principal work activities began. 

The issue becomes more significant when employees must report to a staging location before traveling to the first job site. Speaking with a wage and hour attorney in New Jersey may help clarify how those travel rules apply. 

When the Drive to Work Becomes Paid Time in New Jersey

Travel rules shift once employees must report somewhere before reaching the first assignment of the day.

A construction worker who drives directly from home to a job site remains in ordinary commute territory. A different situation exists when the employer requires the worker to first report to a yard at 6 a.m., load materials, attend a safety meeting, and then drive to the project site. At that point, work already started.

Federal regulation 29 C.F.R. § 785.38 addresses this directly. Employees who report to a meeting place must receive pay for driving from that location to the actual worksite. New Jersey regulations contain similar language.

Some employers still label the drive “commuting” even after requiring workers to perform duties before leaving the reporting location. What happened matters more than what the company called it. Our team at Brandon J. Broderick often reviews disputes involving workers who spend hours checking inventory or receiving assignments before driving to the first site. Employers sometimes treat those tasks as minor preparation. Courts look past labels.

Common examples include:

• A plumbing company requiring technicians to report to headquarters each morning to gather parts and review service calls
• Electricians receiving daily assignments at a central shop 
• Landscaping crews meeting at a company yard to load tools and equipment before heading to client properties

Early duties matter because they mark the beginning of the workday.

Workers frequently transport company equipment from place to place. Carrying specialized tools, chemicals, machinery, or inventory strengthens the argument that the travel primarily benefits the employer rather than the employee personally.

Compensable time includes:

• Mandatory check-ins before departure
• Required safety briefings
• Loading or unloading equipment
• Transporting tools essential to the job
• Completing paperwork before leaving
• Receiving dispatch instructions before travel
• Driving between employer-controlled locations

Courts don’t treat every preliminary task as compensable work. Ordinary preparation is analyzed differently from principal job duties. Those are performed for the employer’s benefit. A quick review of the day’s schedule at home usually doesn’t begin the workday on its own. 

Mobile workforces complicated these disputes. Company-issued devices allow employers to direct workers continuously throughout the day. Some businesses monitor routes and alter assignments while employees remain on the road.

When Travel to the First Job Site and Between Assignments Becomes Compensable

Once the workday starts, driving between assignments becomes paid. Employees moving from site to site for the employer’s benefit usually stay on the clock during those trips.

In 2025, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a home healthcare company in Secretary U.S. Department of Labor v. Nursing Home Care Management Inc. The court examined whether travel between patient visits counted as compensable under the FLSA.

Home healthcare schedules involve changing locations between multiple patients and split shifts throughout the day. Employers sometimes argue that employees remain off duty. Courts examine the arrangement more closely. 

Obligations become stronger when travel primarily serves the employer’s business operations and takes place during the workday. Overtime calculations are frequently affected by it. Employers often leave out changing locations or overnight business trips from payroll records. Employees near the 40-hour threshold lose overtime pay when daily or weekly trip time goes unrecorded. 

Breaks during driving also matter. A worker completely relieved from duty for a long enough period may fall outside the coverage. Short gaps between assignments usually don’t erase the employer’s obligation to pay.

Driving home from the final assignment is usually treated as ordinary commuting time. Some cases we’ve built involve employees who continued performing work duties during the drive home or remained under employer control after leaving the job site. These facts create a stronger argument for a later claim. 

Details matter heavily in these cases. Small differences in job structure change the legal analysis significantly.

How Travel Pay, Remote Work, and Overtime Disputes Overlap in NJ

A one-day assignment in another city differs from a standard commute. Federal wage regulations recognize this distinction clearly. Employees sent on special trips outside their normal work area frequently must receive compensation.

With about 35% of workers now working from home, remote work has changed how employers and courts evaluate time on the road. Leaving the house during the workday does not automatically mean the employee is simply commuting. Travel connected to client meetings, company events, inspections, or presentations is often part of the employee’s job duties.

Emergency call-backs fall into a different category from ordinary commuting. Someone called out overnight after already finishing work doesn’t resemble an employee driving to work in the morning. Emergency repair technicians or on-call healthcare staff frequently face urgent assignments outside their normal schedules.

Off-the-Clock Travel and Unpaid Wages in New Jersey

An employee losing 30 to 60 minutes daily from unpaid travel may lose thousands of dollars annually once overtime calculations enter the picture. Wage-and-hour violations build slowly. A worker misses small amounts of pay every week. But the total becomes substantial over months or years.

In March 2026, the New Jersey Department of Labor added 20 businesses to its Workplace Accountability in Labor List, commonly known as “The WALL.” 

Those businesses collectively owe more than $1 million in unpaid wages. According to the agency, businesses listed on The WALL collectively owed roughly $32.2 million overall. 

Federal enforcement numbers show the same pattern nationally. In 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $259 million in back wages. It’s the agency’s highest recovery total since 2019.

Cases around travel time rarely stay limited to mileage or commuting questions. Once unpaid hours accumulate, the issue becomes unpaid wages under both New Jersey law and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Travel Time Disputes Often Depend on the Full Workday

New Jersey wage law requires employers to maintain accurate records. Those records can become central evidence. Modern technology has changed how wage claims are proven. Courts regularly review GPS data, dispatch logs, scheduling platforms, text messages, and electronic tracking systems instead of relying on memory or handwritten records.

The analysis depends on the structure of the employee’s workday, the employer’s level of control, and the actual duties performed during travel. 

If you believe work-related travel time was excluded from your pay or overtime calculations, contact us today for a free consultation.