Suppose there are two employees: Alice and Bob, who do the same job at the same factory. Alice has a 10 minute (20RT) commute, Bob commutes 35 minutes(70RT).
If you’re the owner of the factory, would you compensate them for their commutes? How would you do it?
Now Alice and Bob both live 10 miles away. Alice drives a GMC Yukon Denali and Bob rides his bicycle. Since Alice’s commute is more expensive, should she be compensated at a higher rate than Bob?
No. It’s not the employers fault that Alice spent more money on her mode of transportation.
This is why paying people for their commute is unreasonable. Payment by mileage is based fuel costs mostly. Some wear and tear, but mainly it’s to offset the fuel cost. If someone rides a bike to work, they don’t have fuel costs, therefore should not be compensated.
In my country the cap is at 12 km I think. So within that distance from work no one gets compensation. Beyond that distance, everyone can get compensation. Motorcycle, car, and train get the same per km compensation, and bike/moped/scooter get a slightly lower ammount. If you have to travel over 60 km (one way) the per km ammount goes up.
Compensation is normally in the form of a tax deduction, but some companies have their own compensation schemes where they pay you for travel. If you get paid this way there’s no tax.
