This month, more than 6,000 people will be traveling to Houston, Texas, to attend NRPA’s 48th-annual Congress and Exposition…You’re going, right? Congress is the best opportunity park and recreation professionals have to hear about the newest innovations (from across the country and the world) and get the professional training they need to advance their career and their agency. Three days. One location. Be there.

If your employer requires you to participate in training, then they’re required to compensate you for that training because your newfound knowledge will ultimately benefit them as much as it will benefit you. If you are a salaried/exempt employee, the calculation of what and when you should be paid for training (and the associated travel) is fairly simple: the same thing you’re always paid. The essence of an exempt/salaried classification is that a fixed weekly wage is being paid to produce outcomes, not hours. Whether you work 30 hours or 60 hours this week, whether it is for a project, training or travel, the weekly compensation is the same. 

If you are an hourly/nonexempt employee, however, the when and for what you get paid can be far more complicated. Logically, since the training is work-related, every hour that that nonexempt employee sits in the training is compensable. That part’s simple. What is less simple is how nonexempt employees should be compensated for the travel to and from the training as determined by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In addition to that, each state may also choose to augment those federal guidelines with their own state regulations. And any individual employer can choose to be more generous than the federal (and state, if applicable) guidelines as well. Many states, however, simply default to the federal guidelines, so here’s what DOL and FLSA say about compensating this work.

Single-Day Attendance

All time spent traveling to and from the Congress location for a single day of training that does not involve an overnight stay is all considered worked time, regardless of the time of day or day of the week. Every minute from the time you leave the house to the time you arrive home is considered worked time and would contribute to the calculation of total worked hours and overtime hours (minus meal breaks, rest breaks, etc.).

Multi-Day Attendance

Travel away from home involving an overnight stay that occurs during regular work hours (regardless of the day of the week) is considered “worked time” and is compensable and eligible toward overtime pay. For example, if your regular work schedule is 8:30–5:00, Monday through Friday, and you will be traveling from 8:30 to 5:00 on Sunday, all of that time is compensable. If you’re traveling from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on a Monday night, none of that time would be compensable. It’s about your regular hourly schedule, not your regular days of work. If you travel from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Friday (or Saturday), the three hours occurring during your regularly scheduled hours are compensable, but the other two hours are not.

Worked Time While at Congress

Applicable to anyone “working” the event (staff, vendors, suppliers, etc.) versus training, once you are at your temporary work site (Congress), your regular work schedule (M–F, 8:30–5:00) is fully replaced by your temporary work schedule. If you arrive on Sunday but are not required to report for duty onsite until 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, the time from 8:30 to 10:00 on Tuesday is not compensable and no time is due for Monday since the compensable travel time was completed on Sunday. Likewise, if your assignments take you beyond 5:00 p.m., all worked time performing duties on behalf of your organization are compensable and eligible toward overtime pay. 

Released Time (or Free Time)

Whether you are “working” the event or attending for training, you may have periods of time between scheduled assignments or sessions where you are completely released from duties and responsibilities, which would not be compensable time. The key is the term “completely released.” If you are “on call,” then you are not completely released, and all of that time is compensable, whether you were “called in” or not. In order for the time to be unpaid, you must have “no restrictions of personal activities.” Only the activities your employer asks or requires of you are compensable. Compensability may extend beyond the education sessions into committee meetings or business appointments with colleagues, but will not likely extended to things like general networking or parties (check with your supervisor beforehand).

Unplanned Call-In for Duty

If you have been completely released from duty for personal free time, you may be called and asked to cover an unplanned shortage somewhere. Assuming your manager is able to reach you, your time is compensable from the moment you agree to come in, including travel to and from the unplanned assignment back to your off-duty­ location. If the unplanned assignment runs into your scheduled assignment, then the travel from the unplanned assignment would no longer be compensable.

“Time” Management Tips

Go over the specific schedules of your nonexempt staff very clearly before you leave. 

Identify when you expect each employee to be attending sessions, “on duty” or “completely released” for personal free time.

Go over “to” and “from” travel schedules and how long you anticipate the travel to take (if they stop off to socialize with friends before “ending” their travel day, you don’t want to be compensating them for that time).

If you think you may need an employee for back-up, get their cellphone number and release them. Don’t make them hang around “just in case.” Calling them in from their free time is still cheaper than putting them “on call.”

If you do try and call someone in whom you had previously “released,” and they can’t or don’t respond, the released employee cannot be penalized or disciplined. Think carefully as you choose who should be released and who should be on call so you don’t penalize yourself.

Cautions about Caveats

The FLSA and other DOL regulations were put in place to ensure that employees are not taken advantage of by employers trying to benefit from their employee’s efforts without actually paying employees for those efforts. In trying to balance that with being reasonable to the employer too, an odd loophole or two may result. While an employer may find a perfectly legal caveat to reduce their employee’s travel compensation, the destructive nature of these practices has such negative outcomes (decimated morale, lower productivity, increased turnover, etc.) that they far outweigh any perceived financial benefit.

With all the great content and learning opportunities available at Congress, each attendee will return home rich with knowledge and innovative ideas that will benefit their employer tenfold. That’s a benefit worth paying generously for!

Lauren Yost is NRPA’s Vice President of Operations.