[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR776.12]

[Page 372]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 776_INTERPRETATIVE BULLETIN ON THE GENERAL COVERAGE OF THE WAGE AND 
HOURS PROVISIONS OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OF 1938--Table of Contents
 
                            Subpart A_General
 
Sec. 776.12  Employees traveling across State lines.

    Questions are frequently asked as to whether the fact that an 
employee crosses State lines in connection with his employment brings 
him within the Act's coverage as an employee ``engaged in commerce.'' 
Typical of the employments in which such questions arise are those of 
traveling service men, traveling buyers, traveling construction crews, 
collectors, and employees of such organizations as circuses, carnivals, 
road shows, and orchestras. The area of coverage in such situations 
cannot be delimited by any exact formula, since questions of degree are 
necessarily involved. If the employee transports material or equipment 
or other persons across State lines or within a particular State as a 
part of an interstate movement, it is clear of course, that he is 
engaging in commerce. \47\ And as a general rule, employees who are 
regularly engaged in traveling across State lines in the performance of 
their duties (as distinguished from merely going to and from their homes 
or lodgings in commuting to a work place) are engaged in commerce and 
covered by the Act. \48\ On the other hand, it is equally plain that an 
employee who, in isolated or sporadic instances, happens to cross a 
State line in the course of his employment, which is otherwise 
intrastate in character, is not, for that sole reason, covered by the 
Act. Nor would a man who occasionally moves to another State in order to 
pursue an essentially local trade or occupation there become an employee 
``engaged in commerce'' by virtue of that fact alone. Doubtful questions 
arising in the area between the two extremes must be resolved on the 
basis of the facts in each individual case.
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    \47\ The employee may, however, be exempt from the overtime 
provisions of the Act under section 13(b)(1). See part 792 of this 
chapter.
    \48\ Reck v. Zarmocay, 264 App. Div. 520, 36 N.Y.S. 2d 394; Colbeck 
v. Dairyland Creamery Co., 17 N.W. 2d 262 (S. Ct. S.D.).
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