On October 7, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in a case challenging whether home health aides must be paid for time spent traveling between clients’ homes. The court’s denial of certiorari leaves in place a Third Circuit (which includes Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey) ruling that such travel time is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The case, Nursing Home Care Management Inc. v. Secretary of Labor, arose after the U.S. Department of Labor sued a Pennsylvania-based home health agency for failing to pay home health aides for time spent traveling from one client’s home to another during the same workday.

The Third Circuit held that this inter-client travel is "integral and indispensable" to the aides’ principal job duties and therefore constitutes compensable work under the FLSA. The court relied on the Department of Labor’s continuous workday doctrine, which requires employers to pay employees for all time between their first and last principal activities of the day, even if that time includes periods of travel or inactivity.

While employers are not required to compensate employees for commuting to or from work, the Portal-to-Portal Act does not exempt travel that occurs after the workday begins. The Third Circuit emphasized that home health aides cannot provide services in clients’ homes without traveling to them, and such travel is a necessary component of the job.

Importantly, the Third Circuit clarified that only necessary travel between job sites is compensable — not marginal travel such as going home, to another job, or personal errands. But for aides working with multiple clients in a day, travel between those appointments must be counted as hours worked.

The ruling reinforces the Department of Labor's longstanding interpretation of the FLSA and signals to employers — especially in industries with mobile workforces — that they should carefully track and compensate intra-day travel time where such travel is tied to core job duties.

Practical Takeaway for Employers:

• Travel between job sites during the workday is compensable. Employers must pay for this time if the travel is required to perform principal work duties.
• The ruling is especially relevant to home health, personal care, and field service industries, where employees frequently travel between customer locations.
• Employers should review timekeeping and scheduling practices to ensure they capture travel time accurately and provide appropriate compensation under the FLSA.

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