My SO travels multiple overnights regularly. In your daily work your commute is on your own dime. And while she works (and is commuting in a company vehicle) for these extended stays she is still only compensated for her standard work day. She is not eligible for overtime so she keeps her days at what she is compensated for. She is given a stipend for meals. An amount for breakfast (less) an amount for lunch (a little more), and an amount for dinner (a little more than lunch). For whatever reason its not a daily per diem for food and I can only assume thats because its a somewhat professional position and many in the organization dont eat breakfast and skip lunch, so without receipts, the organization gains those funds not spent on average as opposed to someone being able to cash their per diem check and buy a few days worth of groceries and put the remaining days in their pocket.

Being away from your family or even your daily household responsibilities is a burden. That said, most companies, even the good ones, dont arbitrarily compensate you for that any more. The work is where it is, if you want to get paid, you come along with some modest compensation.

I would thing it comes down to what can you get compensated for from your customer and what are you willing to give to your employees (if anything) in good conscience. I know for a fact there are a lot of companies out there who would run the install 16 hour days, pay no double over 12, and stretch the straight time out over the next few weeks. Guys would buy their own food and be piled into the smallest hotel room they could fit into.

Then you have the people like ExPat who would give an away from home bonus hopefully paid for in the job or paid out of your pocket because the job keeps your wheels greased.

I feel that staying away is somewhat like working 24-7 though many may feel its a get away, change of venue, chance to get away from their wife and kids, who knows.

In the end you can pretty much do the minimum (which is what most corporations and state and federal government do now). The rest is what you can get compensated for or what your willing to give your crew to satisfy the customer. If your not in the first column, I would think you'd take what you need out of the job and split the rest between the crew as a mini profit sharing incentive. Not saying thats the best tactic, but I tend to fall in the ExPat world which is why my guys drive better cars than I do.