Minhag Hamedinah
Common Commercial Practice #28
Expenses
Q. My employer sent me from the office to do a job elsewhere. Must he reimburse me for all the expenses I incur in the course of this job?
A: Rema (C.M. 182:3) addresses this situation regarding an agent who was sent to deal with an issue and incurs expenses. The sender is responsible for reimbursing expenses reasonable for this task, but not if the agent spent more than is typical.
Similar halachos would apply to a worker who was sent by his employer to work elsewhere; the employer is responsible for reasonable expenses.
Trumas Hadeshen (#323) rules that a very high salary can stipulate that expenses are already included; Ketzos (331:2) disagrees.
A contractor, on the other hand, usually includes his projected expenses in the price quote, and therefore is not entitled to reimbursement of expenses, unless specified (Pis’chei Choshen, Sechirus 8:9:[20]).
Regardless, if there is a common commercial practice regarding employer reimbursement of expenses, we follow the minhag hamedinah (Shach 122:23; Pis’chei Choshen, ibid; 14:1[2]).
