The New Jersey Employment Law Firm Blog
Employers must pay hourly employees for all the time they are on the job. This is not limited to the time they are at their workstation and actively engaged in their job duties. New Jersey employment law requires employers to pay workers for time spent on other required tasks. Unpaid time spent changing into and out of work uniforms, for example, is a common basis for wage claims under state law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes New Jersey, recently ruled in favor of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in a wage lawsuit. The DOL filed suit on behalf of a group of home healthcare workers. The employer was not paying them for the time they spent traveling between clients’ homes. The court found that this was a “willful violation” of the FLSA.
The FLSA states that employers must pay all non-exempt employees a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Non-exempt employees are also entitled to time-and-a-half for overtime hours — if an employee receives $10 per hour for a forty-hour workweek, they should receive $15 per hour for hours over forty in a week.
Employers may violate the FLSA when they do not pay employees for all the hours they are at work. DOL regulations state that employees are entitled to wages for any time spent “on duty.” The rule uses the example of a “fireman who plays checkers while waiting for alarms.” They are not “working,” but they are also not free to do as they please. When employers do not pay employees for all the time they are on duty, an employee’s actual hourly rate may fall below the minimum wage. Their total hours worked may exceed forty hours in a week, entitling them to overtime pay.
The Third Circuit case involved a company that employed “Home Health Aides” (HHAs) who visited clients at their homes. The DOL sued the employer in 2021 for, among other claims, failing to pay HHAs for certain periods spent traveling from one client’s home to another and failing to maintain records of employees’ travel time. A U.S. district court granted summary judgment to the DOL on all of its claims in May 2023. It found five willful violations of the FLSA, which expanded the period of liability from two to three years. It ordered the employer to pay more than $7 million in damages. The employer appealed to the Third Circuit.
On January 31, 2025, the Third Circuit affirmed the trial court’s ruling. It found that time spent traveling while on duty is always compensable. The employer raised the question of whether travel time after an off-duty rest period is compensable. The court held that it is, noting that the necessity of travel is in the job title: Home Health Aide. DOL rules state that an employee is not off duty until they are “completely relieved from duty.” Time spent traveling after an off-duty period is compensable if it is “part of [the employee’s] principal activity.” The court held that travel to client homes meets this standard.
Dealing with unlawful practices by an employer can be difficult, but you do not have to deal with it alone. The Resnick Law Group’s employment attorneys help New Jersey and New York employees assert claims for unpaid wages and other damages. To schedule a consultation to discuss your case confidentially, please contact the firm today through the website, at 973-781-1204, or at 646-867-7997.