I am an hourly employee that is being required go out of town for a training. I still have to show up to work put in a full 8 hours then get on a plane to fly to the company training. Am I entitled to any overtime?
Thanks

I will let LConnell handle this one I trust him. He answered a simular question about a year ago.

LConnell 10-07-2004, 09:24 PM
You said that you are salaried. Are you exempt? If so, you are not eligible for overtime. If you want to learn more about exemptions, you can look at this website: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17a_overview.htm In California, the exemption rules are the same except for the basic salary. In California, an exempt employee must make at least 2 times the minimum wage for a full-time employee. (Minimum wage in California is $6.75).

For travel of non-exempt employees, there is a law called the Portal-to-Portal Act. That Act says that non-exempt employees must be compensated as they travel from site to site, if there isn't any time given for flexibility, time off, etc. Employees are not considered as working until they reach their work site each day. So, time spent commuting to work is not paid work time. The DOL has made mixed decisions on whether the time spent from a clock in spot to the first work site is paid work time. For example, it had ruled that the employees who met at the central office and then rode a company bus to a worksite did not incur worktime during the bus trip. That is because they did not do any work while on the bus, no meeting was held on the bus, etc. However, if a person clocks in and then goes to a worksite, doing work while on the trip, it is considered work time.

However, as I mentioned above, if you are salaried exempt, you are not eligible for overtime. Therefore, the time at which you begin work is not relevant to your pay.

Let me know if you have any other questions.