Is it legal to GPS track employees?

Is there a federal law on GPS tracking of employees?

No federal statute is written specifically for private employers tracking employee location. The Fair Labor Standards Act governs pay, not monitoring. The federal rules that do matter are about context: what the tracking is used for, and whether it touches activity federal law protects.

• Union and concerted activity. The National Labor Relations Act protects employees who act together about pay and working conditions, union or not. Using tracking to watch that activity, or to discourage it, can create problems under the Act regardless of state law.
• Agency guidance has changed. An earlier NLRB General Counsel memo (GC 23-02) urged closer scrutiny of electronic monitoring. On February 14, 2025, the Acting General Counsel rescinded it in GC 25-05. The statute itself did not change.
• Public employers. Government employers face constitutional limits on searches that private employers do not. This page is written for private contractors.

Which states have laws that affect employee location tracking?

A handful of states have laws that apply directly, and they do not all regulate the same thing. Some target tracking devices, some target "electronic monitoring" broadly, and some cover only phone, email and internet monitoring. Read the actual text before assuming a law applies to location.

Does it matter whether the device belongs to the company or the worker?

Yes. Tracking equipment the company owns, issues and controls is the clearest case. Tracking through a worker's personal phone mixes the job with the rest of the worker's life: the same phone goes home, to the doctor and on vacation, and a tracking app is only as limited as its settings.

For the California reimbursement question, see cell phone reimbursement in California. For the alternatives, see time tracking without employee phones.

Can an employer track location outside working hours?

That is where most of the risk sits. The business reason for tracking (which jobsite, how long, travel between sites) ends when the shift ends. Location collected at night or on weekends has no payroll or job-cost purpose and reveals the most about a person's private life, which is exactly what privacy claims turn on.

• Collect location only during paid working time, and design the system so it physically cannot report off the clock.
• Take-home vehicles are the hard case. If a truck goes home at night, decide in writing whether its tracker is active off shift and why, and say so in the notice. In New Jersey, the written-notice rule applies to tracking devices in vehicles employees use.
• Keep raw location history only as long as you need it to settle timesheets and disputes, and delete it on a schedule.

What should an employee GPS tracking notice say?

A good notice tells workers what is collected, when, why, who can see it and how long it is kept, and gets a signed or electronic acknowledgment. Where a statute sets the content (Connecticut's types and locations, New York's acknowledgment and posting), follow its wording first.

• What device collects location, and who owns it.
• When it collects: paid working time only, and what happens at breaks and lunch.
• Why: which jobsite, time on site, travel between sites, payroll and job costing.
• Who sees it: office admins, supervisors, and whether the worker can see their own record.
• How long raw location is kept, and what is kept longer (approved timesheets).
• How a worker disputes or corrects a record.
• A signed or electronic acknowledgment, filed with the personnel record.
• Posting in a conspicuous place where a state requires it, and a copy given before the start date for new hires where required.

Notice and consent are different. Most statutes above require notice. California's tracking-device statute speaks of consent. Asking for written consent costs little and covers both.

Do union contractors have to bargain before adding tracking?

Often the safe assumption is yes. Under the National Labor Relations Act, wages, hours and other working conditions are mandatory subjects of bargaining, and an employer generally may not change them without first bargaining with the union (NLRB). A new tracking system that affects how hours are recorded or how workers are evaluated can be treated as a change in working conditions.

• Read the collective bargaining agreement for existing language on timekeeping, vehicles or monitoring.
• Raise the system with the business agent before rollout, not after a grievance.
• Be ready to explain what is collected, when, who sees it, and what it will and will not be used for.

More on this in union contractor time tracking and introducing tracking with a union.

Worked example: one contractor, three states

A mechanical contractor with its shop in New Jersey runs jobs in New York and Connecticut. Crews drive company trucks and carry company-issued tracking devices during their shifts. Here is how the laws above stack up for that company. Facts change the answer; this shows the reasoning, not a conclusion for your company.

1. 1

   New Jersey (shop and most crews)

   Devices ride in vehicles employees use, so give every affected employee written notice before tracking starts. Keep the signed notices.

2. 2

   New York (employees based at a New York office)

   Section 52-c is about phone, email and internet monitoring. If the company also monitors work email or internet use, give the 52-c notice at hiring, collect acknowledgments and post it.

3. 3

   Connecticut (crews on a Connecticut job)

   Connecticut's notice covers monitoring on the employer's premises. Whether a customer's jobsite counts as the employer's premises is not settled by the text, so give written notice of the types of monitoring and where it occurs, post it at the site trailer, and give new hires the plain-language statement before they start.

4. 4

   If the crews are union

   Bring the plan to the business agent before rollout and check the agreement for existing language.

5. 5

   Everywhere

   Track during paid time only, keep raw location on a deletion schedule, and let workers see and dispute their own records.

How ZeroBadge handles this

ZeroBadge uses company-issued, company-managed badges, so nothing is installed on a worker's personal phone. Power on starts the shift and power off ends it; badges are off between shifts. Raw location history is deleted after 90 days, while timesheets are kept. Access is role-based with an audit log, and an optional worker portal lets workers see their own hours and request corrections.

ZeroBadge does not decide whether tracking is lawful in your state or write your notice. Your employment lawyer should review the notice and rollout plan for each state you work in.