A new Department of Labor opinion letter gives employers more flexibility to let non-exempt employees split a workday between home and the office without automatically having to pay for the employees’ ordinary mid-day commute time. Opinion Letter FLSA2026-9, issued July 22 by the Wage and Hour Division, concluded that mid-day home-to-office or office-to-home travel generally is not compensable when it is an ordinary commute that primarily benefits the employee, even if it occurs between periods of compensable work.
DOL rejected the view that an employee’s home automatically becomes a separate job site merely because the employee performs some work there. The opinion letter also explains that the continuous workday doctrine does not, by itself, convert an ordinary commute into paid worktime.
Employers should consider whether existing hybrid-work restrictions for non-exempt employees remain necessary. Employers should continue paying for travel between job sites, special assignments, emergency travel, or any travel during which employees perform work
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