Two recent opinion letters from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“DOL”) provide additional guidance on when employee travel between home and work constitutes compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Together, these letters illustrate an important distinction for employers: an employee’s ordinary commute generally remains unpaid, but an employer directed commute or if the employee performs substantive work immediately before or during travel can change the analysis.

In Opinion Letter FLSA2026-9, the DOL concluded that travel between an employee’s home and office generally remains non-compensable. The DOL explained that this remains true, even when the trip occurs in the middle of the workday and the employee performs work at both locations, provided that the employee does not perform work while traveling and the trip primarily benefits the employee – that is the timing of the commute is voluntary and driven primarily by the employee’s preferences.

In Opinion Letter FLSA2026-10, the DOL concluded that travel could be compensable when an employee is required to perform substantial principal work during the commute. Unlike an employee who voluntarily chooses when to commute for personal convenience, if the commute is dictated by the employer and the employee is expected to perform substantive work before or during the commute, then the travel can be compensable.

At first glance, the two opinion letters may appear difficult to reconcile. One permits unpaid travel in the middle of a workday, while the other treats travel from home to the first work location as compensable. The distinction lies largely in who controls the timing and circumstances of the travel and what work occurs immediately before or during it.

In FLSA2026-9, employees voluntarily choose when to commute for their own convenience. They are not required to perform substantive employer-directed duties immediately adjacent to the trip. As a result, the travel retains the character of an ordinary commute. In FLSA2026-10, the employee performs substantial, employer required duties before departing for the first customer and travels according to the demands of the employer. Those circumstances connect the travel much more closely to the employee’s principal work activities.

While the DOL opinion letters are fact-specific and do not have the same force as statutes or regulations, the opinions reinforce that compensability cannot be determined solely by asking whether travel occurs before, during, or after a traditional workday. Employers must consider the circumstances surrounding the trip. As a takeaway, employers should evaluate applicable state law and the particular circumstances of commuting within their workforce.