Underneath the Washington Minimal Wage Act (MWA),¹ employers are necessary to pay out personnel for all “hours labored.” Unfortunately, no matter if functions rely as hrs worked is not a simple notion, especially when it will come to commuting and travel time. Despite the fact that companies commonly do not have to pay back workforce for their daily commute to and from perform, Washington case law has recognized some commute contexts that do depend as several hours worked. Employers should really immediately update their vacation time procedures and procedures to ensure that they are entirely paying out staff members for all several hours worked in compliance with the recent Port of Tacoma v. Sacks² decision.

EMPLOYERS’ OBLIGATION TO Spend Hours Labored

The related MWA regulation defines “hours worked” to include things like “all several hours throughout which the personnel is authorized or necessary by the employer to be on obligation on the employer’s premises or at a approved workplace.”³ Beyond this regulatory definition, the Section of Labor and Industries (the Division) has issued an administrative coverage that supplies details on the Department’s interpretation of what routines or time depend as compensable hours labored.⁴

The Department’s coverage distinguishes “commute time” from “travel time.” The plan defines “commute time” as the time an employee travels involving operate and household and “travel time”⁵ as “time put in traveling for a function-related objective.”⁶ Importantly, the plan instructs that commute time is not compensable but that vacation time is.⁷

Knowledge WHEN COMMUTE TIME OR Vacation TIME IS COMPENSABLE

A few Washington appellate instances underscore the big difference among when workforce are commuting and when they are participating in journey time that counts as hours labored.

1st, in Anderson v. Division of Social & Wellness Services,⁸ the Washington Court docket of Appeals interpreted what it intended for an personnel to be “on duty” and held that time personnel of the Specific Dedication Center on McNeil Island used riding the employer-presented ferry to and from work was…