Commuting would be defined as one's physical journey from home to one's workplace. The "workplace" is generally considered to be where one's office is domiciled, but it may temporarily be a workplace different than normal office location when travel is essential in order to perform the work. Your compensation question sounds like it's really a function of wage and hour law, however. Are you in the US? If so, FLSA applies, and here is basically what that federal law mandates as far as this issue. If an hourly-paid employee must fly to another division of the company,say from city A to City B, whether or not the employer must compensate the employee depends. There are basically three scenarios: 1. If you were traveling during your normal working hours, then the employer must pay you for the time, even if the travel occurs on a day when you wouldn't otherwise be working (i.e., a Saturday or Sunday). 2. If you started your trip during normal working hours (again, even if the travel occurs on a Saturday or Sunday), and the trip ended after your working hours, the employer doesn't have to pay for the time in excess of normal working hours. Example: If you regularly work Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. To 5 p.m., flew on Tuesday at 12 p.m., and arrived at 7 p.m., the employer doesn't have to count travel hours after 5 p.m. As hours worked. 3. If all travel was strictly limited to your non-working hours, the employer doesn't have to pay you for the time. Example: If the your flight took off at 7 p.m., the employer would not have to pay for the time. (But keep in mind that if your travel time, together with your working time, adds up to more than 40 hours during the week, you are owed overtime at one-and-one-half times your regular rate of pay.) Now, there's another rule to be aware of under FLSA, and since I don't have all the details of your situation, I include that here also. If you drove a company vehicle from your home, and this was the"first job of the day", your employer may not have to compensate you for the commuting time. According to the FLSA, commute time isn't considered working time if an employee drives from his/her home to first worksite of the day. This is true even if the worksite changes every day. On the other hand, it would be considered working time if you had to report to the office first, before you went out to the job site. If that were the case, your drive to the office would be considered non-compensable commuting time, but the drive from the office to the first job site (city B in your case) would be considered traveling that's all in a day's work--so compensable. Either way, you should be compensated for travel expense of mileage/gas if you used your own vehicle. If you have further questions, you can contact the Wage and Hour Division of your local Dept of Labor office for your state. Wage and Hour law is a federal law, but every state has a department of labor office that can help you/answer your questions. I hope this helps you. Good luck.
