Originally Posted by darthbimmer

And another thing-- I don't particularly agree with the policy of "per diem is paid at 75% on the last day of travel." That policy embeds assumptions that are false for many business travelers. In particular, the assumption is that 75% is appropriate because, say, on the last day of travel the traveler eats dinner at home and thus doesn't need compensation for that meal. That makes sense in government travel because rank-and-file civil servants (and many in private sector companies who work on gov't contracts) are not expected to travel far outside of working hours. If they're assigned to staff a project onsite through Thursday, they'll work until 5-6pm Thursday, stay another night at the hotel, and spend Friday work hours traveling home. 75% per diem on Friday makes sense. In the business world it's more or less expected that you fly home Thursday night to have Friday available for desk work. When you get home at 11pm Thursday you should receive 100% of the per diem for that day as you've incurred the costs of a full day of travel.