When you work, you must be compensated for all of the hours that you spend for your job. However, there are certain activities in which you might engage that are not compensable time. The Portal-to-Portal Act is a law that was passed in 1947 that makes certain types of activities not compensable. If you have questions about whether your employer should have compensated you for some of the hours that you have spent for your job, talk to the employment law team at Swartz Swidler.

What is the Portal-to-Portal Act?

In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a workweek included the time that employees spent while walking from a factory entrance to their work areas. Congress passed the Portal-to-Portal Act in 1947 in response to this ruling so that they could make these types of activities not compensable. Under the act, some preliminary activities that you might do before your job are not compensable. This might include the time that you spend commuting to your job. Similarly, some of the activities that you complete after your workday is finished also are not compensable time, including the time that you spend on your commute home from your job.

Under this law, employers do not have to pay workers for the time that the workers spend on preliminary activities and those that they perform when their workdays are finished. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that the law requires that employers pay their workers for the time that they spend doing activities that are integral to their primary job duties.