March 31, 2005
Original post: Jon Coppelman
There is a relatively new phenomenon for a growing number of working Americans: extreme commuting. According to Business Week, 3.4 million Americans have a commute to work that takes 90 minutes or longer each way. Fueled by outrageous inflation in housing prices, American workers find themselves driving until they qualify that is, driving out from their jobs until they reach a community where they can afford a house. The Blue Ridge Mountains have become a bedroom community of Washington, D.C., New Hampshire is now an exurb of Boston, and Modesto, Calif. is an outpost of Silicon Valley. (If you are interested in learning where your state ranks for extreme commuting, check out the chart in this USA Today article.)
The average commute in America is still only 25.5 minutes. In the not-too-distant past, people drew the line at 45 minutes. But economic necessity has caused that number to double, with no end in sight. When you combine tremendous commuting distances with the inevitable congestion as you near centers for employment, you have a recipe for serious anguish.
The Business Week article tells the story of a Whirlpool employee who crosses a time zone to get to his job. Waking at 3 a.m., the employee drives 105 miles from Chicago's West Side to company headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich. During the drive he conducts business on his cell phone. He started the job with a brand new Range Rover, racking up 62,000 miles in the first year. Now he drives an $84,000 Mercedes sedan. My question for the employee, and his deep-pocketed employer, is whether his prolific cell phone use puts this employee at higher risk for an accident and if so, is the employer comfortable with this open-ended liability?
Commuting Stress and Workers Compensation
So are all these stressed out commuters ripe for workers compensation claims? Under most state laws, they are not. Comp does not ordinarily cover the to and fro of commuting. Coverage generally begins when you get to your workplace and ends when you leave it. Indeed, the state of Missouri recently changed its to and fro rule to eliminate coverage for drivers in company cars, closing the loop on an unusual and ill-advised definition of working.
Indeed, not only are most extreme commuters not covered by comp, the stress of their (non work-related) commute is so great, they are unlikely to qualify for any comp stress claim because they will be unable to prove that work comprises at least half of the stress in their harried lives! The stress of their commute is likely to dwarf any stress that occurs in the workplace.
Some employees may be covered by workers comp during the commute. If people routinely take work home, using their homes as an office, in some states the definition of the workday may expand to incorporate their commute. For these workers, and for on-call workers, coverage may be door to door. Nevertheless, even if they are working while commuting, they will face a very high standard to establish that any serious stress problems are work related.
For those of us fortunate enough to face a modest and possibly even pleasant commute each morning, let's take a moment to sympathize with our fellow workers who face the challenges of extreme commuting. It's no sport and it's no fun. Here's wishing that their next job involves a five minute walk up the street.
Original post: Jon Coppelman
There is a relatively new phenomenon for a growing number of working Americans: extreme commuting. According to Business Week, 3.4 million Americans have a commute to work that takes 90 minutes or longer each way. Fueled by outrageous inflation in housing prices, American workers find themselves driving until they qualify that is, driving out from their jobs until they reach a community where they can afford a house. The Blue Ridge Mountains have become a bedroom community of Washington, D.C., New Hampshire is now an exurb of Boston, and Modesto, Calif. is an outpost of Silicon Valley. (If you are interested in learning where your state ranks for extreme commuting, check out the chart in this USA Today article.)
The average commute in America is still only 25.5 minutes. In the not-too-distant past, people drew the line at 45 minutes. But economic necessity has caused that number to double, with no end in sight. When you combine tremendous commuting distances with the inevitable congestion as you near centers for employment, you have a recipe for serious anguish.
The Business Week article tells the story of a Whirlpool employee who crosses a time zone to get to his job. Waking at 3 a.m., the employee drives 105 miles from Chicago's West Side to company headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich. During the drive he conducts business on his cell phone. He started the job with a brand new Range Rover, racking up 62,000 miles in the first year. Now he drives an $84,000 Mercedes sedan. My question for the employee, and his deep-pocketed employer, is whether his prolific cell phone use puts this employee at higher risk for an accident and if so, is the employer comfortable with this open-ended liability?
Commuting Stress and Workers Compensation
So are all these stressed out commuters ripe for workers compensation claims? Under most state laws, they are not. Comp does not ordinarily cover the to and fro of commuting. Coverage generally begins when you get to your workplace and ends when you leave it. Indeed, the state of Missouri recently changed its to and fro rule to eliminate coverage for drivers in company cars, closing the loop on an unusual and ill-advised definition of working.
Indeed, not only are most extreme commuters not covered by comp, the stress of their (non work-related) commute is so great, they are unlikely to qualify for any comp stress claim because they will be unable to prove that work comprises at least half of the stress in their harried lives! The stress of their commute is likely to dwarf any stress that occurs in the workplace.
Some employees may be covered by workers comp during the commute. If people routinely take work home, using their homes as an office, in some states the definition of the workday may expand to incorporate their commute. For these workers, and for on-call workers, coverage may be door to door. Nevertheless, even if they are working while commuting, they will face a very high standard to establish that any serious stress problems are work related.
For those of us fortunate enough to face a modest and possibly even pleasant commute each morning, let's take a moment to sympathize with our fellow workers who face the challenges of extreme commuting. It's no sport and it's no fun. Here's wishing that their next job involves a five minute walk up the street.
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