In Washington, your employer must pay you for travel time whenever you are on duty or your movement is controlled by the employer. That covers trips between job sites during the workday, out-of-town assignments from the moment you leave home, and commutes where you’re expected to answer calls, carry required equipment, or use a company vehicle under restrictive rules. The one big exception is your ordinary drive between home and a fixed job site when you’re free to do as you please. The framework comes from WAC 296-126-002(8), which defines “hours worked” as all time you are authorized or required to be on duty at the employer’s premises or a prescribed workplace.
The Ordinary Commute Stays Unpaid
Driving from home to a fixed job site and back on your own time is not compensable. As long as you’re free from work duties and can use the drive however you want, it falls outside “hours worked.” Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries treats this as personal, portal-to-portal time.
The word doing the work here is “free.” If the employer doesn’t dictate where you go, what route you take, or what you do along the way, the commute stays unpaid. The moment those restrictions appear, or the employer asks you to perform any work during the drive, the analysis shifts.
Travel Between Job Sites During the Workday
Once you’ve reported to your first location, every trip your employer sends you on for the rest of the day is paid. L&I’s Administrative Policy ES.C.2 states plainly that time spent driving or riding as a passenger between job sites is hours worked.1Department of Labor and Industries. Hours Worked Picking up supplies, heading to a second customer, attending a meeting at another branch — all of it counts.
If you clock in at a warehouse at 8 a.m. and your supervisor sends you to a client across town at 10 a.m., the drive is paid at your regular rate, the same as any other task on the clock.
When a Commute Becomes Paid Time
A commute that looks routine can flip into compensable time when the employer exercises enough control. The Washington Supreme Court laid out how this works in Stevens v. Brink’s Home Security, Inc., a case brought by 69 home-security technicians who drove company trucks between their homes and customer sites.2FindLaw. Stevens v Brinks Home Security Inc
Applying WAC 296-126-002(8), the court asked two questions: were the technicians on duty, and were the trucks a prescribed workplace? Both answers were yes. Brink’s restricted the trucks to company business, prohibited personal stops and non-employee passengers, and required technicians to keep the vehicles clean and serviced. The trucks carried the tools for installations, technicians did paperwork inside them, and supervisors could redirect a driver mid-route to a new service call.2FindLaw. Stevens v Brinks Home Security Inc The drive itself was compensable under the Minimum Wage Act.
If your setup looks similar — a company vehicle you can’t use for personal purposes, work tasks tied to the drive, the possibility of being rerouted — your commute likely qualifies too.
Calls, Emails, and Dispatch Along the Way
You don’t need a company truck for the same result. If your employer expects you to take phone calls, respond to emails, or monitor a dispatch radio while driving, you aren’t completely relieved from duty, and the time counts as hours worked.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act The same logic applies if you receive assignments at home through voicemail or a handheld device and have to plan your route before leaving, which was one of the factors the court weighed in Stevens.
Occasional calls you initiate on your own don’t change the character of the commute. The test is whether the employer requires, expects, or knowingly benefits from work performed during the drive.
Out-of-Town Travel
This is where Washington parts ways with federal law, and where the state is considerably more protective. Under Administrative Policy ES.C.2, all travel time related to work is compensable regardless of the number of hours or when the travel occurs.1Department of Labor and Industries. Hours Worked That includes time getting to an airport, train station, or other transit hub. Washington doesn’t split hairs between travel during your normal work hours and travel outside those hours on overnight trips.
L&I’s reasoning: out-of-town travel exists for the employer’s benefit and is integral to the assignment. As long as the employer approves the means of travel, you’re authorized to be on duty at a prescribed workplace throughout the active journey.1Department of Labor and Industries. Hours Worked
Two limits are worth knowing. Once you arrive at your hotel and are genuinely free, you’re off the clock. And if your employer has you report to the office first, the drive from home to the office is still your ordinary unpaid commute. But if you leave straight from home to the airport for an out-of-town job, L&I treats the trip from your front door onward as compensable.1Department of Labor and Industries. Hours Worked
How Travel Time Feeds Overtime
Every hour of compensable travel counts toward the 40-hour weekly threshold that triggers overtime. If you work 35 hours at your regular job sites and spend 8 hours traveling between locations or to an out-of-town assignment, your week totals 43 hours, and the last 3 must be paid at one and a half times your regular rate.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
Some employers track travel separately and quietly leave it out of the overtime calculation. That’s a violation. Compensable travel is hours worked, and it gets added to your weekly total before overtime is figured.
Mileage and Vehicle Expenses
Washington has no general law requiring private employers to reimburse employees for mileage or vehicle wear when they use a personal car for work. Federal law sets a floor: under the FLSA, if unreimbursed driving costs push your effective hourly pay below the minimum wage, your employer has violated the law. With Washington’s 2026 minimum wage at $17.13 per hour, that floor is reached faster than in most states.4Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage
When employers do reimburse, many use the IRS business mileage rate as a benchmark. For 2026 that rate is 72.5 cents per mile.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile Up 2.5 Cents Employers aren’t legally required to use it; any reasonable method of covering actual vehicle expenses satisfies federal law. But if you’re getting nothing and driving dozens of miles a day, run the math on whether your take-home pay still clears minimum wage after fuel and maintenance.
Filing a Complaint for Unpaid Travel Time
If your employer owes you for travel time, file a complaint with L&I. The online complaint portal is the fastest route, and paper filing and in-person options exist as well.6Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Worker Rights Complaints7Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Workplace Rights Complaint Include the employer’s business name, the exact dates of unpaid travel, and a calculation of the wages owed at your regular pay rate. Specific records make a stronger case. Investigations typically take up to 60 days, though complicated matters run longer.
Deadlines and What You Can Recover
L&I cannot investigate wage violations that occurred more than three years before you file, and it cannot order payment of wages owed more than three years before the filing date.8Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.48.083 Every pay period you wait is one that could age out.
The penalties for employers who willfully withhold travel pay are steep. Under RCW 49.52.070, an employee can sue for double the amount of unpaid wages as exemplary damages, plus court costs and reasonable attorney fees.9Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.52.070 A refusal to pay $5,000 in travel wages can end up costing $10,000 plus legal fees. The statute of limitations for a civil action is also tolled while L&I investigates, so filing an administrative complaint doesn’t eat into your time to bring a lawsuit if you need to.8Washington State Legislature. Washington Code RCW 49.48.083