Hybrid Work and Midday Commutes: New DOL Guidance Gives Employers a Better Framework

Hybrid work has created a wage-and-hour question that barely existed for many employers a few years ago: What happens when a nonexempt employee works from home, travels to the office in the middle of the day, and continues working there?

On July 22, 2026, the Department of Labor issued two FLSA opinion letters dealing specifically with remote work and commuter travel. One addressed voluntary mid-day travel between an employee’s home and office. The other addressed employees who receive pages, communicate with clients or coworkers, schedule appointments, and then drive from home to a first client appointment.

The first opinion letter concluded that, under the particular facts presented, voluntary mid-day travel between home and the office could qualify as ordinary commuting rather than compensable worktime. That does not mean every mid-day drive by a hybrid employee is automatically unpaid.

Under longstanding DOL guidance, ordinary home-to-work commuting generally is not compensable, while travel from job site to job site during the workday generally is.

That distinction makes the facts incredibly important.

Best Practices for Employers

Start by defining your hybrid arrangement. If an employee independently chooses to work from home for part of the day and voluntarily travels to the normal office later, the analysis may be different from a situation where a manager directs the employee to leave one work location and report to another.

Employers should also distinguish travel time from work performed during travel. An otherwise noncompensable commute does not give an employer a free block of labor. If a manager expects the employee to handle calls, respond to messages, coordinate appointments, or perform other work during the drive or immediately before it, additional compensable-time questions arise.

Mobile workers need even more attention. Home-health employees, technicians, sales employees, inspectors, maintenance workers, and other employees traveling directly to customer locations can present significantly different facts from a conventional office commute.

Timekeeping systems should accommodate split workdays. A hybrid employee who works from 7:00–10:00 a.m. at home, stops working, commutes, and begins again at the office needs a way to accurately capture those work periods.

What Employers Should Do Next

Review your remote and hybrid work policy for nonexempt employees. If the policy explains where employees may work but says nothing about recording remote time, travel, calls, texts, or split schedules, it needs another round.

Train managers not to assume that “driving” automatically means “off the clock.” Instead, HR should evaluate why the travel occurred, whether the employer required it, where the employee was traveling, and what work occurred before, during, and after the trip.

Employers with mobile workforces should consider having their specific arrangements reviewed because small factual differences can change the result.

The new opinion letters are useful guidance, but they are not a universal “midday commuting is unpaid” rule. In wage-and-hour compliance, the sentence employers should probably frame and hang on the wall is: It depends on the facts.