On 22 July 2026, the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued two companion opinion letters addressing compensable travel time under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The letters, designated FLSA2026-9 and FLSA2026-10, together explain how the WHD analyzes whether commute and pre-commute time constitutes compensable hours worked.
Both letters arrive at a critical moment for employers managing hybrid and remote work arrangements, as well as those with field-based or dispatch workers who begin their day at home.
The unifying principle across both letters is the “primary beneficiary” analysis, under which time spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit counts as work and time for the employee’s benefit does not.
The letters trace the concept of “hours worked” through the FLSA’s early history, referencing the Portal-to-Portal Act, the 1996 Employee Commuting Flexibility Act, and landmark Supreme Court case law.
FLSA2026-9 addresses a scenario in which a large nonexempt, office-based workforce splits a single workday between home and the office, with a midday drive in between.
The WHD concluded that an otherwise-ordinary commute does not become compensable simply because it occurs in the middle of the workday rather than at its start or end.
The WHD identified the ordinary commute as a standalone third category of noncompensable time that can occur during the continuous workday, alongside bona fide meal breaks and off-duty periods.
Performing compensable work at home before or after the drive does not, by itself, convert the commute into work time, provided the employee retains the freedom and flexibility of a normal commute.
FLSA2026-10 examines a field service engineer who installs and services magnetic resonance imaging systems, drives an employer-provided vehicle, and handles client calls before his paid shift begins at 8:00 a.m.
The WHD drew a careful line between receiving service request pages, which it deemed incidental to commuting and not compensable, and calling clients to schedule appointments, which it found integral and indispensable to the engineer’s principal duties.
Because the client calls constitute a principal activity, they trigger the continuous workday doctrine, meaning the workday begins the moment those calls start.
The WHD found that where the employer requires most of the pre-drive hour to be spent on calls, dictates the timing and manner of travel, and demands principal work immediately on arrival, the subsequent drive is compensable.
Together, the two letters do not change existing law substantively but provide a clearer analytical framework for a question that has long been ambiguous and intensely fact-driven.
The inquiry remains deliberately fact-intensive, and FLSA2026-10 pointedly declines to specify how few calls or how little employer control would tip a drive into compensable territory.
The WHD also noted that where at-home work time is variable and difficult to measure, employers and employees may use a reasonable agreement under 29 C.F.R. § 785.23.
Employers are advised to review hybrid and split-day arrangements to confirm midday commutes are genuinely voluntary and free of actual work during travel.
Businesses with field or dispatch workers should audit pre-shift practices to distinguish noncompensable receipt of assignments from compensable scheduling, coordination, and client-facing work.
Employers must also account for state wage-and-hour laws, which may treat travel and commute time more expansively than the FLSA requires.