29 CFR § 541.502 - Away from employer's place of business.

---
identifier: "/us/cfr/t29/s541.502"
source: "ecfr"
legal_status: "authoritative_unofficial"
title: "29 CFR § 541.502 - Away from employer's place of business."
title_number: 29
title_name: "Labor"
section_number: "541.502"
section_name: "Away from employer's place of business."
chapter_name: "WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR"
subchapter_number: "A"
subchapter_name: "REGULATIONS"
part_number: "541"
part_name: "DEFINING AND DELIMITING THE EXEMPTIONS FOR EXECUTIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE, PROFESSIONAL, COMPUTER AND OUTSIDE SALES EMPLOYEES"
positive_law: false
currency: "2026-04-05"
last_updated: "2026-04-05"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
authority: "29 U.S.C. 213; Public Law 101-583, 104 Stat. 2871; Reorganization Plan No. 6 of 1950 (3 CFR 1945-53 Comp. p. 1004); Secretary's Order No. 4-2001 (66 FR 29656).29 U.S.C. 213; Pub. L. 101-583, 104 Stat. 2871; Reorganization Plan No. 6 of 1950 (3 CFR, 1945-53 Comp., p. 1004); Secretary's Order 01-2014 (Dec. 19, 2014), 79 FR 77527 (Dec. 24, 2014)."
regulatory_source: "69 FR 22260, Apr. 23, 2004, unless otherwise noted."
cfr_part: "541"
---


# 541.502 Away from employer's place of business.

An outside sales employee must be customarily and regularly engaged “away from the employer's place or places of business.” The outside sales employee is an employee who makes sales at the customer's place of business or, if selling door-to-door, at the customer's home. Outside sales does not include sales made by mail, telephone or the Internet unless such contact is used merely as an adjunct to personal calls. Thus, any fixed site, whether home or office, used by a salesperson as a headquarters or for telephonic solicitation of sales is considered one of the employer's places of business, even though the employer is not in any formal sense the owner or tenant of the property. However, an outside sales employee does not lose the exemption by displaying samples in hotel sample rooms during trips from city to city; these sample rooms should not be considered as the employer's places of business. Similarly, an outside sales employee does not lose the exemption by displaying the employer's products at a trade show. If selling actually occurs, rather than just sales promotion, trade shows of short duration (*i.e.,* one or two weeks) should not be considered as the employer's place of business.