Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Calculator
Enter your full-time and part-time headcounts with their weekly hours to get total FTE, your Affordable Care Act (ACA) status, and optional salary cost roll-up. Results update as you type.
Formula
Worked example
A company has 10 full-time employees at 40 hrs/week and 6 part-timers at 20 hrs/week. Group 1 hours: 10 x 40 = 400 hrs. Group 2 hours: 6 x 20 = 120 hrs. Total: 520 hrs. FTE = 520 / 40 = 13.0 FTE. Under ACA (30-hr standard): 520 / 30 = 17.3 FTE - above the 50-FTE ALE threshold? No, still below. Salary at $60,000/FTE: 13.0 x $60,000 = $780,000 total annual cost.
What is Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)?
Full-time equivalent, or FTE, converts a mix of full-time and part-time workers into a single standardized number that represents the total labor capacity in terms of complete full-time positions. One FTE equals the hours a single full-time employee works over a given period - most commonly 40 hours per week in the United States. A part-timer working 20 hours a week therefore contributes 0.5 FTE, and three such employees together equal 1.5 FTE. FTE is used for budgeting, workforce planning, grant reporting, government compliance, and comparing staffing levels across teams or periods even when the headcount mix changes.
How to calculate FTE: the formula
The core formula is simple: FTE = Total weekly hours worked / Full-time hours per week. Add up the total hours all employees work each week (headcount multiplied by hours per person for each group), then divide by the hours that define a full-time position. With a 40-hour standard, 10 full-timers (40 hrs each) and 6 part-timers (20 hrs each) produce (400 + 120) / 40 = 13.0 FTE from 16 people. The denominator changes by context: the U.S. government typically uses 40 hours for PPP loan forgiveness, the Affordable Care Act uses 30 hours, and your internal standard may differ. This calculator supports all three modes.
ACA FTE and the 50-employee employer mandate
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) uses a 30-hour-per-week threshold to define a full-time employee, rather than the conventional 40 hours. Under ACA rules, an employer is an Applicable Large Employer (ALE) if it averaged at least 50 full-time employees (including FTE) over the prior calendar year. ALEs are required to offer affordable, minimum-value health coverage to full-time employees (those averaging at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month) or face potential employer shared responsibility payments. For monthly FTE calculations under the ACA, part-time employees' hours are capped at 120 per month before dividing by 120 to produce an FTE count. The ACA ALE threshold is measured as an average across all 12 calendar months, so a seasonal workforce that spikes above 50 in summer may still fall below the threshold on an annual average.
FTE vs. headcount: why the difference matters
Headcount simply counts people regardless of how many hours they work. FTE measures productive labor capacity. A team of 20 part-timers each working 20 hours equals a headcount of 20 but only 10 FTE - very different budget and output implications. FTE is the more useful number for cost modeling (annual cost = FTE x average salary), for comparing productivity across departments or time periods, and for any regulatory calculation that adjusts for part-time labor. Headcount remains useful for physical space planning, benefits enrollment counts (where each person is one person), and HR compliance areas such as FMLA eligibility (which uses headcount, not FTE).
FTE conversion reference (40-hour standard)
| Weekly hours | FTE (40-hr standard) | FTE (ACA 30-hr standard) | Schedule example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 1.00 | 1.33 | Full-time (5 days x 8 hrs) |
| 35 | 0.88 | 1.17 | Near full-time (5 days x 7 hrs) |
| 32 | 0.80 | 1.07 | 4 days x 8 hrs |
| 30 | 0.75 | 1.00 | ACA full-time threshold |
| 24 | 0.60 | 0.80 | 3 days x 8 hrs |
| 20 | 0.50 | 0.67 | Half-time (5 days x 4 hrs) |
| 16 | 0.40 | 0.53 | 2 days x 8 hrs |
| 10 | 0.25 | 0.33 | Part-time (casual) |
| 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Not working / on leave |
How common part-time schedules map to FTE when the full-time threshold is 40 hours per week.
Frequently asked questions
What does 1.0 FTE mean?
One FTE (1.0) represents the hours worked by one full-time employee over the measurement period. When the standard is 40 hours per week, one FTE equals 40 hrs/week, 160-174 hrs/month, or roughly 2,080 hrs/year. Under ACA rules the equivalent is 30 hrs/week or 130 hrs/month.
What is the standard number of hours for 1.0 FTE?
It depends on the context. Most U.S. private employers use 35-40 hours per week. The U.S. federal government generally uses 40 hours for programs like PPP loan forgiveness. The Affordable Care Act uses 30 hours per week (or 130 hours per month) as its full-time threshold. Grant programs, universities, and nonprofits sometimes define FTE differently, so always check the reporting requirements of your specific program.
How do I calculate FTE for part-time employees?
Divide each part-time employee's weekly hours by the full-time standard. A worker averaging 25 hours under a 40-hour standard is 25/40 = 0.625 FTE. When you have multiple part-timers, multiply each person's hours by the number of people in that group to get total group hours, then divide the grand total by the full-time standard. This calculator does all of that automatically across up to three groups.
How does the ACA define full-time for the employer mandate?
Under the ACA, a full-time employee is one who averages at least 30 hours of service per week or at least 130 hours per calendar month. For part-time employees, you add up their monthly hours (capped at 120 per person) and divide by 120 to get an FTE count, which is then added to your full-time headcount. If the combined average over the prior calendar year equals or exceeds 50 FTE, you are an Applicable Large Employer subject to the employer shared responsibility mandate.
What is the ACA ALE threshold and why does it matter?
ALE stands for Applicable Large Employer. Under the ACA, an employer that averages 50 or more full-time employees (including FTE) over the prior calendar year must offer affordable, minimum-value health insurance to full-time employees or potentially owe Employer Shared Responsibility Payments. Knowing your FTE count helps you determine whether and when you cross this threshold, which can happen even if raw headcount is below 50 due to full-time-equivalency adding part-time hours.
Is FTE the same as FTEs (full-time employees)?
Not exactly. FTE is a unit of measurement that normalizes hours into a full-time equivalent; an individual person can be less than 1.0 FTE or more than 1.0 if they work overtime. FTE (the acronym) is sometimes used loosely to mean actual full-time employees, but in budgeting and compliance contexts the calculated value (total hours / full-time hours) is what matters, and it can include fractional amounts.
How do I convert annual hours to FTE?
Divide total annual hours by the number of hours in a full-time work year. Using a 40-hour week and 52 weeks gives 2,080 hours per FTE per year. So if a project consumed 10,400 hours of labor in a year, that equals 10,400 / 2,080 = 5.0 FTE. Adjust the denominator if your organization uses a different standard - many use 1,950 or 2,000 annual hours to account for holidays and leave.