Set minimum wage for any in-office position to match the amount required to purchase a house within 15 minutes average transit to the office.

On the one hand, as a worker, I absolutely think it should be considered part of the work day, HOWEVER, there’s so many factors that go into what constitutes your commute, that I’m not sure how businesses would account for that. Is it based on distance, so the farther away you live, the more compensation you get, just because you live further away? That seems to unfairly reward people people who live farther away. Do you just give a blanket extra 1 hr (30 min before/after the work day) to everyone to account for it, assuming that that covers most cases?

It does seem to be a standard for most businesses that travel, you’re paying for their time just to come out. I’ve had plenty of plumbers/handymen/house fixerish people who have charged just for gracing me with their presence for <10 min, even though they didn’t actually do any work, there’s usually a ~$50–100 minimum charge for house calls. I’m assuming their travel time is getting factored into it, so why shouldn’t other workers travel time be factored in as well?

In the UK it’s pretty clearly spelled out (although not always perfectly applied, I’m sure there’s still the odd boss trying it on).

Your working day starts when you arrive at your contracted place of work, and are ready to start work. Not when you walk in the door, before having a cuppa or breakfast in the office kitchen. Not after your computer has booted up and is ready for you.

If you have multiple places of work, or are travelling away from your contracted place of work, then your working day starts the moment you walk out your door and leave home.

The end of the day is the same, if you’re in the office it ends and then you leave, if you’re working away it ends when you get home (so factor in travel time and leave site before then).

Whether or not you actually get paid for every hour is another matter, however. Salary vs hourly work. If you’re salaried it’s supposed to be give and take - however it’s ultimately up to you to take what you can to balance it out. Work isn’t going to offer you an early finish, not as easily as they’ll ask you to stay late.

It’s crystal clear that commuting is not part of the work day, but perhaps it should be.

Just like we should only work 6 hours so we can actually have some time after to do things we want, like hobbies or just enjoying time with friends.

Work is consuming people’s lives and entire identities.

Bosses: No, it’s not.

Workers: Yes, it is.

Commutes are part of the work day if the employer does not allow WFH. How else is the employee supposed to show up for work?

There is no reason to debate, it’s clear as day. But the greedy, rich assholes on the reins think everyone should be honored to waste their lives working under them.

Workers aren’t grasping the managerial challenges of leading a remote workforce.

Cry me a fucking river

Each year, the average American spends nearly $8,500 and 239 hours traveling to and from work, per data from Clever Real Estate.

One could argue that’s “good” because it makes the wheel of economy turn. Gas pollution alone would make me say this is bad for all involved (except oil companies and their shareholders, but they can go fuck themselves)

Still, though, WFH Research also finds that fully remote work is associated with 10% to 20% lower productivity than fully in-person work [<- link to the research paper, go to page 10]. Barrero explained the disparity to Fortune in July: “In many of the studies we cite and in some of our own survey evidence, workers often get more done when remote simply because they save time from the daily commute and from other office distractions. This can make them look more productive on a ‘per day’ basis, even if it means they’re actually less productive on a ‘per hour’ basis.”

There’s no reason to “go above and beyond” when you’re in the comfort of your home. It’s why perceived “per hour” productivity drops. Besides, nobody actually works 8 hours straight, there are several pauses, even in an office or factory. We’re not robots.

When that commute is eliminated, they view it as a productivity increase. Employers, naturally, instead see it as less bang for their buck.

“You’ll waste precious hours of your day and you WILL LIKE IT, WAGESLAVE!”

Challenges in communicating remotely and lack of motivation are the main issues preventing fully remote workers from being more productive

Good luck motivating me to waste 2h every day without any raise or compensation in order to be “more productive in the office”

Imagine how much more chill everyone on the road would be if they were getting paid to be there.

Do I have to perform the commute to be employed at Job X? If so, sure as hell sounds like a part of Job X to me.

if only there was a way to get work done while avoiding the commute…

When I worked in Belgium not only did they pay for your transit costs, they even paid for your car, phone, and lunch. Granted the car and phone were contingent on you having a use for them for your work, but still.

This was nearly 20 years ago.

Although I agree with what everyone is saying “that it make sense to compensate workers for the commute in time and money”, I’d like to nuance a little, because I think it is a bit more complicated from a moral standpoint: Imagine employer were paying for your commute and you were on the clock during it, what happen when you move to another appartment/house further from work ? Should the employer continue to pay and clock your longer commute ? It seems weird that my decision to move to another part of the city would affect my employer. The consequence would be that employer will mandate that you cannot move without their appoval or that their cost for your commute is fixed in the contract and need to be renegociable. In the end what it boils down to is not that commute should be paid for and part of the work day. What people want is better salaries and smaller hours. Then the commute doesn’t matter anymore, and stays at the expense of the worker who can therefore move wherever they want.

Wow, that’s cool! I’ve fallen in to a wormhole and ended up on Hexbear!

Lots of bickering about how it works now vs how it should work. Meanwhile I’m going crazy that nobody is pointing out how much of the burden of the commute is placed on the worker. It’s literally thousands of dollars a year in being licensed to drive, vehicle registration, insurance costs, variable and ever increasing gas prices, repair and maintenance. Every single aspect of the commute is a burden on the worker, and corporations take it for granted. It’s not factored into most people’s pay rate or compensation. Whether or not the employer should be held responsible for relieving some of the burden, we should recognize that workers need to lessen this burden one way or another. Increasing tax deductibles to include commute time isn’t an unreasonable first step. Treat it just like travel for any other work related reason.

It’s easy:

Are you requesting I as a worker dedicate any part of my time, and/or usage of my personal resources to accomplish something for YOUR business? Yes it’s part of the work day.