I travel quite a bit for work, and have small children at home. The pay isn't great, but the time off is. All hours I spend travelling are compensated hour for hour with PTO. Sometimes, 2-3 days travelling will give me a week of PTO. Yes, it is annoying to spend time away from the kids, but having endless weeks of vacation time to spend with them later makes it worth it.
Could this be something you could negotiate, instead of increased pay?
Do you mean all your time out of your city, so you only would have to work half a year! Or do you mean the travel time that is over 8 hours per day? One would be awesome and the other is pretty standard I think (although I didn't have it in my travel jobs)
I can't count the hours I sleep/relax, so I guess it is closer to the last option? To give an example from a travel I'll do later in June:
Day 1: (8.5+3.5 hours) Meetings at office 0830-1700. Leave home at 1900 to catch the train at 1925. Arrive at hotel around 2230. Fall asleep.
Day 2: (12 hours) Leave hotel at 0800 to go to meeting (0900-1700). Arrive back at hotel 1800. Answer emails etc 1900-2100
Day 3: (12 hours) Work at hotel 0900-1100. Leave for meeting (1200-1600). Walk around town, maybe grab some food, until the train leaves 1755. Arrive at home 2100.
My winter time work week is 38.75 hours, summer time is 35. This includes 30 minutes paid lunch break. So when I get back to the kids and family, I have already worked enough hours that week, and can take the rest of it off. Or I can save up the two days for a longer summer break. I could have chosen to work less while travelling, and explored the destinations, but I prefer working longer days and having more time off with the kids.
okay, for my travel, I had some choice in how I booked my days. When kids were small, I would work local office 2-3 days a week, and then travel from 5am to 10pm on the other two days, (different cities) so kids would know I was in the house at night. 45 hours / week of work time, plus 20 hours of travelling.
More typically, travel is leave on Sunday afternoon-- get home on Friday by 6pm. Total hours on the job site would be 4 full days plus 1 half day. I may do a bit of email from the hotel room, but I guess it was 40-45 hours / wk plus travel time (of 12 hours) each week, plus the weeknights away from home (at hotel rooms trying to relax or sleep).
Your scenario actually sounds like full time pay for only 3 days of work, (830-1700 - 8hr, 900-1700 7.5 hr, 900-1600 6.5hr = 22.5 hrs per week of actual on-duty time) which is pretty nice in comparison, even if your work days were long. Looks like they are paying you for the travel time, but not the hotel time.