I suspect it’s for people who work off-site a lot. You clock in at the office, and then have to drive an hour to the client’s factory where you repair or install something. Most people would expect to be paid for that travel time, but a lot of employers would rather not.
So it’s travel from workplace to workplace, not home to workplace.
And once you’re on the clock, you’re getting paid. Full stop.
We have a lot of field offices throughout Eastern Kentucky. You know my employer is champing at the bit for this to pass.
Yeah, except, no so much any more. That’s kind of the point of the complaints.
ETA: and when thinking about what this “really means”, remember that “travel time” is only one aspect of it:
Pugel said the bill could potentially deprive workers of pay when, for example, a factory worker is putting on a hazmat suit before handling dangerous chemicals or a school bus driver is checking over the bus before driving it.
If you’re not being paid for the time it takes to put on a HazMat suit, what are the odds you were being paid to drive out to the client’s site just before that?
Kinda like flight attendents not being paid until the door is shut on the plane. Complete BS in my opinion. The most work is probably boarding passengers.
I remember my grandfather, who worked as a carpenter, telling me how there was always an argument over whether they should be paid for the time they spent sharpening their tools. The workers felt it was an essential part of the job, of course, since sharp tools make for better work, while the bosses often argued that sharp tools made for easier work, so the workers were just doing it for themselves.
Apparently it ended up that some jobs paid for sharpening, and some didn’t, depending on who the client was, and what their contract stipulated. So when he was being paid for this time, he sharpened every tool he had, no matter what.
These kinds of arguments have been going on for decades, probably centuries, maybe millennia.
I guess your talking about chisels? I used to be a frammer.
But this bill is sort of like saying, “You don’t get paid for the time it takes to update the computer with the software that you must use”.
I think it’s more like, store opens at 10, you start getting paid at 10, but you need to be here at 9:45 to setup.
Their was some story I read about a trucking company and a retail chain and perhaps undocumented immigrants. Apparently, shipping was not versed at staging a trailer, so the person getting a skid off it had to pull off a dozen or more to get at the one they wanted, but they were only on the clock for the time it took to put the jack under the ordered skid and pull it to where it was needed. The unloading and reloading part was on their own time.
Grampa’s career went back to before WWII, so there were a lot fewer power tools around. So yes, chisels, but also saw blades, axes, adzes, knives, planes, all that. Pretty much anything that would cut, chop or shave, he used at some point. I’ve got a few of his old tools here, that he inherited from his father. Come the apocalypse, I’m set to take back up the old family trade of “Start with logs, end with house”. The house will probably suck, sure, but it’ll be better than a bombed-out ruin! 
How do companies like this stay in business? If I were moving those other skids out of my way to get to mine, I would have probably done a lot of “accidental” damage to them in my haste to get to mine.
They’ve got the workers by the balls. “Right to Work” states in which you can be fired for almost any reason, or none. Employer-supplied healthcare, so if you do get fired, you risk bankruptcy for even a minor health problem. And governments like this, that are actively complicit in trying to roll back decades of worker improvements in the name of employer’s profits.
When every game in town is rigged, you play the rigged game.
That’s how I read it. Also, sure you’re supposed to clean and stow the tools when you get back to the shop, but that time doesn’t count either.
I believe the story involved an undocumented immigrant: much easier fodder for the squeezing.
Really, it’s all of these examples. If it were one or two things, that wouldn’t be so bad, but the employers (and their Republican enablers) are nickel and diming workers on every little thing they can get. 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and suddenly, what was an 8 hour paycheck becomes a 6 hour paycheck, and they expect you to be thankful for even that. And every cent of that money goes straight into the owner’s pocket as extra profit.
And points to the larger Republican strategy of distracting workers with “social” issues like Foreigners, Muslims, Blacks, Trans, Women, Elites, etc. “They” are the ones keeping you from getting a decent wage for honest work. (Ignore the Rich White Man behind the curtain.)
Ages ago I read a memoir by a Pullman porter written a hundred years ago. His first trip they were in the car a couple hours before departure and he was contemplating the hours paid. The old hand told him, “Kid, we don’t get paid until the train leaves the station.”
… the very difficult job of keeping the government’s doors open for another week would so exhaust everyone that they need a long weekend.
That’s the primary business for Thursday, which is passing yet another stop-gap bill to avoid a partial government shutdown Friday night, when they vote on the continuing resolution that will keep the government’s doors open for another week.
…
Damn! Where do they find the stamina to keep going. 
In response to a bill in Georgia to create custom license plates with the motto “America First” on them, a Democratic member sarcastically introduced an amendment to change the wording to “Donald Trump First”.
It almost passed, 26-29, with broad Republican support.