I’m more ashamed of the legislature that allows this to happen. There’s no reason an employer should not have the pay the minute they expect something of the employee, assuming it’s a position paid per unit of time.
The problem is that you get into things that aren’t part of your duties that are still expected of you. Such as commuting to and from work; It’s necessary to commute, but it’s not part of your duties.
It’s unsettled (in America) what’s the right answer to that, but an argument against it I’ve heard is: if you get a job and the employer agrees to pay for a 10 minute commute twice per shift, but you then move 30 minutes away, why should the employer be on the hook for that extra 20 minutes (40 per shift)?
The moment you're at your job is when your clock should start, unless your employer has demanded you do a 2+ hour commute or something. Ie, the moment they control what you do and can order you to do things like putting on a uniform.
And the moment they can no longer do that is when the clock stops, ie once you've finished getting out of uniform and left.
Commute has pretty much not been on the negotiating table as far as I understand for most positions. The only time I've seen commute being paid is for workers who need to travel to the job site.
Even then it's generally that you travel unpaid to the office, then you are paid for the travel time from there to the job site.
Commuting isn’t expected of you. Being at a certain place at a certain time is. Once you’re there at that time, the clock starts, but I’ve never heard anyone argue that an employer is responsible for your commute.
My point was: if we take the “expected of you” further, someone will argue that we should pay for your commute.
And yes, commuting isn’t expected, but unless you’re living at your job, you have to commute. So, saying “a commute isn’t expected, but being on time is” doesn’t make sense.
Not to mention, there are times where an employer is required to pay for your commute. The biggest is travel that is required to do your job, such as a door-to-door salesperson. That could lead to: if a commute is practically required to do your job (your house to your place of work), why not pay for that?
I personally don’t have an opinion on this; I’m just playing devil’s advocate.
