The US Department of Labor has released a pair of opinion letters that tackle two questions many employers keep running into: when does an employee’s commute count as paid time, and how do the rules shift once someone works from home? The FLSA remote work and commuter travel guidance was published by the department’s Wage and Hour Division on July 22, 2026.
The letters matter because the difference between “commuting” and “working” can decide whether hours are compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For hourly and non-exempt staff, that distinction feeds directly into overtime and minimum wage math.
According to the Department of Labor, the two letters respond to specific fact patterns submitted for review. The full text of each letter is posted through the department’s newsroom.
What are DOL opinion letters, and why do they matter?
An opinion letter is the Wage and Hour Division’s written answer to a real question about how federal wage law applies to a described situation. Employers request them when the rules are unclear for their particular setup.
Calculate Your 2026 COLA Increase →These letters are not new statutes. However, they signal how the department reads the FLSA, and employers often rely on them for good-faith compliance. Because remote arrangements have reshaped where and when people work, guidance on travel and home-based duties carries real weight.
What does the FLSA remote work and commuter travel guidance address?
The department issued two separate letters covering distinct issues:
- Commuter travel: When an employee’s travel to and from a work location counts as hours worked under the FLSA, and when it is treated as an ordinary, unpaid commute.
- Remote work: How the FLSA applies to employees performing duties from home, including how work performed off-site fits into compensable time.
The specific fact patterns, the exact conclusions the department reached, and any dollar figures or hour thresholds are not detailed in the material available here. Readers who need the precise reasoning should consult the letters directly rather than relying on a summary.
Is normal commuting time paid under federal law?
As a general FLSA principle, ordinary home-to-work travel at the start and end of the day is not counted as hours worked. Travel that is part of the job itself – for example, moving between job sites during the workday – can be a different story.
The department’s commuter travel letter looks at where a given arrangement falls on that line. Because the outcome depends heavily on the facts described in the request, the letter’s conclusion applies most cleanly to the scenario it was written about. The exact scenario is not spelled out in the information provided here.
How does remote work change what counts as compensable time?
Working from home does not remove FLSA protections. Non-exempt employees must still be paid for all time actually worked, including tasks done outside a traditional office.
The remote work letter addresses how those principles operate when an employee’s workplace is their home. Practical questions this touches include:
- Off-site duties: How work performed at home is treated as hours worked.
- Travel tied to remote arrangements: How trips connected to a home-based role interact with the commuting rules.
- Recordkeeping: The general expectation that employers track hours accurately, even when staff are not on-site.
The letter’s precise holding is not reproduced in the details available here, so employers should read the department’s own text before applying it to their workforce.
Who is affected by these letters?
The guidance speaks most directly to two groups:
- Employers: Especially those with hybrid or fully remote staff, or workers who travel between locations.
- Remote and non-exempt workers: Anyone whose pay could hinge on whether travel or at-home tasks count as working time.
Because opinion letters respond to specific facts, an arrangement that differs from the one described may reach a different result. That is why the department publishes the letters in full rather than a one-line rule.
Where can I read the full DOL opinion letters?
The Wage and Hour Division posted the announcement and links on the Department of Labor website. You can find the release here: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20260722.
Employers weighing how the FLSA remote work and commuter travel guidance applies to their own pay practices should review the letters closely and, where the facts are close but not identical, consider legal counsel. For workers, the letters are a useful reference point if there is a question about whether certain hours should have been paid.
