I work for a company that does store resets in home improvement centers. My employment agreement states that I am salaried non-exempt. My base of work is out of my home and I am required to travel long distances and sometimes all week to complete my assignments at various locations. I am required to be available Monday-Friday with additional times as needed. Everything I have found states that my commute time should be the first half hour after leaving home and the last half hour on returning home and all other is considered business travel. I am paid for a forty hour week no matter how much time is spent traveling or working in the stores. I am also paid a forty hour week if no work is scheduled and I am available to work. I am required to only work for this company. If I am out sick or for some other reason unavailable my pay is reduced for time off after 5 PTO days which must be approved in advance by management. I would like to know if I should be paid travel time and overtime? Most weeks the two add up to over 50 hours.

I am confused as you say that you are a salaried non-exempt. Are you sure you don't mean salaried exempt?

No, I mean salary nonexempt. The employment agreement states that I am nonexempt. It also says that I am to be paid a salary for 40 hours to be available to work for them and outside employment is discouraged. It goes on to say that due to the nature of the work, some weeks will require more than 40 and that travel is a requirement of the job. When work is scarce we will also be paid for 40 hours so that we will remain available to work when they do have work scheduled. They require us to sign a timekeeping record each week stating that we worked 40 hours. No records are submitted to show the additional work or travel time. When we are off work due to something personal, if we do not have PTO days they subtract wages by the hourly rate for all hours we were "not available". This is also done even when we have worked 40 hours that week. They also require us to be available on Fridays even when we have already worked over 40 hours and completed all work scheduled for that week or we will lose wages for not being available. At this time they claim they do not have to pay for normal travel. That includes times when we travel to a store and back home in the same day. But they also consider it normal when we leave home on Sunday afternoon and return home on Thursday evening. This type of travel is far more likely than returning home daily. After reading all the Dept of Labor stuff I could find, I think what should be happening is that on weeks we work over 40 we should be paid overtime for the extra hours. That weeks we travel long distances, any travel over an hours commute should be considered company paid travel time. Weeks that we can travel to a store and back home daily should be considered normal travel time and not paid. We furnish our own cars and do not get mileage reimbursement. They are not considering the hours over 40 to be comp time that is used when we are off due to lack of work, because we are not submitting any type records to show this. The time they pay us when we are sitting idle is just for their convenience of us not seeking other employment due to folks not being able to miss wages for a week or two. Do you think they should be paying travel time on the longer trips? Do you think I am due overtime pay? They feel since they pay us when we are idle (which seldom happens), they are not responsible to pay us overtime for extra hours on the weeks we work. That all travel is normal because of the type work we do would require anyone doing it to travel.
Thank you for your opinion.

It's not unusual for an employer to classify a non-exempt employee as salaried; however, if they do so, they are required to pay them overtime for any hours that they WORK over 40 hours per week. This might in some cases include travel IF it falls within the requirements for paid travel as defined in the FLSA.

There is nothing illegal about requiring you to substitute paid leave for time you are not available, whether you have worked forty hours in the week or not.

I thought I was due overtime. I think I understand the travel standards. Do you understand them as follows:

1. Travel where I can go to a work location, complete work assigned, and return home the same day is considered commute time and is not due pay.

2. Travel where I leave home and travel a distance far enough to require overnight stays (out of community), is considered work time (less 30 minutes each direction from and to home as commute time) and is due pay.

3. Travel during the course of a work day from the first store to multiple store locations is considered work time until the last store, which is due pay. The time to the first store and from the last store is considered commute time if I can return home the same day as I left.

Is this correct?

I'm going to give you the federal perspective. However, there may be additional perspectives at the state level. What state are you in?

The federal regulations definitely mirror your statements. You can read about the federal perspective at: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs22.htm

The regs themselves may be found at:
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_785/29CFR785.38.htm

Thank you very much. :) This is exactly what I was looking for.