A caregiver in central Nebraska told us she quit her agency because she was driving 200 miles a week for free. Not underpaid. Unpaid. This article is about why that happens, what the rules actually say, and what to ask for.
Two different things: travel time and mileage
People use "mileage" to mean both, but they are separate questions with separate rules.
- Travel time is the clock. Minutes spent driving from one patient's home to the next.
- Mileage is the car. Gas, tires, oil, depreciation, insurance: the cost of putting your own vehicle on the road for work.
Federal law is clear on the first and mostly silent on the second. That gap is where most of the money goes missing.
Travel time: it is work, and it has to be paid
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, time spent traveling between job sites during the workday is hours worked. For a home health aide, that means the drive from patient A to patient B counts toward your hours and toward overtime after 40. The U.S. Department of Labor has said this specifically about direct care workers since its 2013 home care rule.
What is not paid: the commute from your house to the first patient and from the last patient home, the same as any other job.
In practice, agencies handle this three ways. Some pay travel time at your regular rate. Some pay it at a lower "travel rate" (legal, as long as the blended average stays above minimum wage and overtime is calculated correctly). Some do not pay it at all and count only the visit minutes, which is the version that is not legal and is also the most common complaint we hear.
Mileage: there is no federal requirement to reimburse it
This surprises people. There is no federal law that says an employer has to reimburse mileage. A handful of states require expense reimbursement (California, Illinois, Massachusetts and a few others). Nebraska is not one of them.
So in Nebraska, whether you get mileage comes down to your agency's policy and the minimum-wage floor above. Many agencies pay something, often well under the IRS rate. Some pay nothing.
What a mile actually costs: 72.5 cents
The IRS sets a standard mileage rate each year that is meant to cover the full cost of operating a car for business. For 2026 it is 72.5 cents per mile, up from 70 cents in 2025.
That rate is the honest number. On a 40-mile round trip to a rural patient it is $29. On a week with 200 miles between patients it is $145. If you are paid $17.38 an hour, the Nebraska median for home health and personal care aides, an unreimbursed 200-mile week is a bit more than eight hours of pay handed back to the agency.
| Miles between patients per week | Cost at 72.5¢ | Hours of pay at $17.38 |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $36 | 2.1 |
| 100 | $73 | 4.2 |
| 200 | $145 | 8.3 |
| 300 | $218 | 12.5 |
Arithmetic on the two figures above, 72.5¢ a mile and the state median wage. It is not an estimate of any job's pay.
Can you deduct it on your taxes instead?
If you are a W-2 employee, no. The 2017 tax law suspended the deduction for unreimbursed employee expenses, and the 2025 tax law made that suspension permanent. An employee who drives 200 miles a week for work and is not reimbursed gets nothing back at tax time.
If you are self-employed (a 1099 contractor), yes. Business miles go on Schedule C at the standard rate, and they reduce both income tax and self-employment tax. This is one of the few places where contractor status is clearly better for the worker, which is why the classification question matters so much for caregivers. We wrote about it separately: 1099 or W-2 as a caregiver in Nebraska.
What to ask your agency
- Is drive time between patients paid, and at what rate?
- Is mileage reimbursed, and at what rate per mile?
- How do I log both? (If there is no way to log it, it is not being paid.)
- Can I see a pay stub line for each?
If the answers are "no", "no", "we don't", and "no", you now know what your real hourly rate is.
How Rayva handles it
We do not think the drive should be a policy question. Every visit offered on Rayva shows three numbers before you accept: a base rate for the visit, mileage from where you are to the patient at a per-mile rate you can see, and any boost for storm or high-need days. The total is what you are paid. There is no travel-rate blend, no reimbursement form, and nothing to log.
Rayva is opening county by county in Nebraska. If you give care, the waitlist is free.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor, Application of the FLSA to Direct Care Workers
- IRS standard mileage rates for 2026 (72.5¢ business)
- 29 CFR 531.35, wages must be paid free and clear
- Staffingly, mileage reimbursement for caregivers in 2026
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Nebraska home health and personal care aides (via CaresLink)
