Travel Time Pay in California: When Commutes Become Hours Worked

An ordinary commute isn’t paid time in California. Travel the employer requires and controls is. The Supreme Court of California drew that line in Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. (2000) 22 Cal.4th 575, holding that farmworkers required to ride the employer’s buses had to be paid for the ride. Most travel time claims ask which side of that line a particular trip falls on. Employers that make transportation optional, and keep it that way, are in the strongest position.

When is travel time paid in California?

When the employer controls the travel. California’s wage orders define hours worked to include “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer,” as Wage Order 16 and the other orders put it. The question for any trip is how much control the employer exercises.

Morillion made the requirement the deciding fact on its record. The growers told workers to meet at set departure points and ride company buses to the fields, and they barred workers from driving themselves. The court held that “The level of the employer’s control over its employees, rather than the mere fact that the employer requires the employees’ activity, is determinative.” It distinguished “travel to and from a work site that an employer controls and requires” from “an ordinary commute from home to work and back that employees take on their own.”

Federal law doesn’t help a California employer here. The court concluded “that the federal statutory scheme, which differs substantially from the state scheme, should be given no deference.” An employer relying on the federal Portal-to-Portal Act to avoid paying for required travel is relying on the wrong law.

Can an employer offer transportation without paying for the ride?

Yes, if using it is actually up to the employee. The Morillion opinion says “employers may provide optional free transportation to employees without having to pay them for their travel time, as long as employers do not require employees to use this transportation.”

The risk is a program that’s optional on paper but not in practice. If the only parking is miles from the site, if supervisors expect everyone on the shuttle, or if employees who drive themselves are treated differently, a court may find the transportation required. The written policy should say the transportation is optional, and managers should act like it is.

Is a commute in a company vehicle paid time?

Not if the employee chose the arrangement. In Hernandez v. Pacific Bell Telephone Co. (2018) 29 Cal.App.5th 131, technicians who took company trucks home under a voluntary program sought pay for the drive to their first customer. The Court of Appeal affirmed judgment for the employer, explaining that “because the plaintiffs here were not required to use the company vehicle to commute to work, they were not under the control of the employer.”

Carrying tools didn’t change the result. The court held that “simply transporting tools and equipment during commute time is not compensable work where no effort or extra time is required to effectuate the transport.” The opinion added in a footnote that “loading the truck with tools and equipment at the Pacific Bell garage is compensable time.” Take-home vehicle programs are defensible when they’re voluntary and when any loading, inspection, or paperwork done before the drive is paid.

Does waiting for employer transportation count too?

Yes, when the ride is required. The Morillion workers sought pay for assembling at the departure points, riding to the fields, waiting for the return bus after work, and riding back. The court treated that whole sequence as compulsory travel time and held it compensable. It excluded only the employees’ own trips between home and the departure points.

That matters for exposure. A required shuttle often involves more waiting than riding, most of all at shift change, and the wait is part of the claim. Pay also has to be at the right rate. Wage Order 16 calls for the regular rate “or, if applicable, the premium rate,” so travel time that pushes a day past eight hours can become overtime. Twenty minutes of daily travel on a large construction project, multiplied across every worker and every workday in the limitations period, adds up fast. The time records rarely capture it, so plaintiffs’ experts estimate it, and those estimates are where the defense should push back.

What about travel after employees arrive at the worksite?

That depends on where the workday starts. For construction and the other on-site occupations it covers, Wage Order 16, section 5(A) provides that “All employer-mandated travel that occurs after the first location where the employee’s presence is required by the employer shall be compensated at the employee’s regular rate of pay or, if applicable, the premium rate.”

In Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors (2024) 15 Cal.5th 908, workers at a solar site passed through a security gate and then drove 10 to 15 minutes to the parking lots. The court held the drive could be paid as employer-mandated travel if the gate was the first required stop for a work reason, not just “the practical necessity of accessing the worksite.” It rejected the workers’ alternative theory, holding that “an employer’s imposition of ordinary workplace rules on employees during their drive to the worksite in a personal vehicle does not create the requisite level of employer control.”

For employers, Huerta means site rules alone, like speed limits or a ban on stopping, don’t turn a drive into hours worked. What matters is whether the employer requires workers to report somewhere for a work purpose before the drive. A badge check that exists only to let people onto the property is different from a gate where workers receive assignments or undergo inspections.

How do travel time claims compare?

What should an employer do once a travel time claim arrives?

Travel claims turn on what the policy said and what managers actually required. Collect both.

1. Hold the transportation and vehicle policies in every version, sign-up forms for any voluntary program, GPS and fleet data, gate logs, and the timekeeping records for the class period.
2. Calendar the deadline on the complaint, PAGA notice, or wage claim, and check for an arbitration agreement with a class waiver and an employment practices liability (EPLI) policy with notice requirements.
3. Identify the supervisors who scheduled the transportation or told employees where to report, and make sure no one takes action against the employees bringing the claim.
4. Map each route and stop, separating ordinary commutes from required stops, and note which employees chose a voluntary program and when.
5. Talk to a lawyer before changing the program or making payments, so any change doesn’t read as an admission that the old program was mandatory.

Businesses seeking employment defense for California employers can review the firm’s practice page.

Travel time questions from California employers

Do we have to pay for a shuttle from a remote parking lot?

Only if employees are required to use it. Under Morillion, optional transportation doesn’t create paid time. If employees have no other practical way to reach the site, though, the shuttle starts to look required. Document the alternatives, such as closer parking or drop-off points, and keep using the shuttle voluntary.

Is travel between job sites during the day paid?

Generally yes, once the workday has started. For construction work, Wage Order 16 requires pay for “employer-mandated travel that occurs after the first location where the employee’s presence is required by the employer.” For other industries, travel the employer directs between assignments falls within the control test. Time records should capture it.

Does carrying company tools make a commute paid?

Not by itself. Hernandez held that transporting tools isn’t work when no extra effort or time is needed. Required stops to pick up materials, load equipment, or get assignments are different, and that time should be paid.

Can we require employees to report to the shop before going to the site?

Yes, but the time is paid from the shop onward. Once an employer requires employees to report somewhere for a work reason, the travel from that point is under its control. An employer that prefers not to pay for that drive can let employees go straight to the site instead.

If a travel time claim reaches your company

If your company has received a class action, PAGA notice, or wage claim over unpaid travel time, the transportation policy and what supervisors required usually decide how much of it is real. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents employers defending employment lawsuits and claims through its business litigation practice, including claims involving unpaid travel time. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.

Sources

The regulation is California Code of Regulations, title 8, section 11160 (Wage Order 16). The decisions are Morillion v. Royal Packing Co. (2000) 22 Cal.4th 575 and Huerta v. CSI Electrical Contractors (2024) 15 Cal.5th 908, published decisions of the Supreme Court of California, and Hernandez v. Pacific Bell Telephone Co. (2018) 29 Cal.App.5th 131, a published Court of Appeal decision.

This post is general information about California employment law as of November 7, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment statutes, regulations, and court decisions change often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.