Is travel time between jobs paid?

What counts

• Travel between assignments or sites during your working day counts as working time for the minimum wage.
• Your normal commute to your first job and home from your last doesn't.
• If you have no fixed place of work, special rules can apply; ask Acas if unsure.

Why it matters

If you're paid only for time at each visit or site, your pay for the period divided by all your working hours, including travel, can fall below the minimum wage. That's underpayment, even if your hourly rate looks fine.

Track it

Log the time and miles between each job. Then you can check your real average hourly pay and any mileage you're owed.

A worked example

A cleaner works 3 offices in an evening for one contractor, paid £13.00 an hour for 6 hours on site (£78.00). Travel between offices takes an hour. Across 7 working hours the average is £11.14, below £12.71. The contractor owes at least £10.97 for that evening, or £54.85 for a five-day week.

Travel between two different employers

If you go from one employer's job to another employer's job, the travel between them is your own time. It's only working time when you travel between assignments for the same employer during your working day.

Mileage

If you drive your own car between sites, HMRC's approved rate is 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year and 25p after that. Mileage payments are expenses, not pay, so they don't count towards the minimum wage. If your employer pays less than the approved rate, you can claim tax relief on the difference.

Keep your own record

Log each shift as you finish it in Shiftaan and you'll always know which ones are still unpaid. Start free, no card needed.

Common questions