What is the ACA 30 hour rule?

Asked by: Ari Keebler  |  Last update: April 2, 2025
Score: 4.3/5 (32 votes)

If an employee is credited with an average of 30 hours per week or more during the Standard Measurement Period, the employee would be eligible for benefits for the upcoming plan year.

How many hours to be eligible for ACA?

ACA Requirements for Full-Time & Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Employees. Under the Affordable Care Act, full-time employees work an average of either 30 hours or more in a week or 130 hours during the month. Employers with over 50 full-time employees must comply with ACA requirements.

What is the 50/30 rule in the Affordable Care Act?

The Affordable Care Act's “shared responsibility” provisions (also referred to as the "employer mandate" or "play or pay") generally require that “applicable large employers” or ALEs (those with 50 or more full-time employees working at least 30 hours per week or their equivalents when adding together part-time hours) ...

How are ACA hours worked calculated?

Combine the number of hours of service of all non-full-time employees for the month, but do not include more than 120 hours of service per employee. Divide the total by 120.

What is the ACA employer mandate for 2024?

Employer mandate overview

Employers must offer health insurance that is affordable and provides minimum value to 95% of their full-time employees and their children up to the end of the month in which they turn age 26, or be subject to penalties.

Measuring FTEs for ACA: What if we don't know how many hours an employee will work?

43 related questions found

What is the 30 hour rule for ACA?

If an employee is credited with an average of 30 hours per week or more during the Standard Measurement Period, the employee would be eligible for benefits for the upcoming plan year. The Stability Period is the period of time that the employee cannot lose eligibility regardless of the hours he works.

Does PTO count as hours worked for ACA?

Hours of service include hours worked, and hours for which an employee is paid but does not work, such as vacation, holiday, illness or disability, jury duty, military duty, or leave of absence (up to a maximum of 160 hours for any continuous period). Special rules apply for certain situations.

What is the 1560 hour rule?

Variable hour employees are subject to the measurement periods for purposes of the ACA. A variable hour employee may not have more than 1560 hours in a rolling year or work more than 130 hours/month for a period equal to or greater than 3 consecutive months or 12 weeks.

What are the rules for ACA FTE?

Under the MMM, an employee is considered “full-time” for any given month if he or she works an average of 30 hours of service per week for the month, or a total of 130 hours of service for the month, which the IRS considers to be equivalent standards.

What is the 80 20 rule for ACA?

The 80/20 Rule generally requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money they take in from premiums on health care costs and quality improvement activities. The other 20% can go to administrative, overhead, and marketing costs.

What is the ACA 29 hour rule?

Any variable hour employee working an average of at least 30 hours per week at the end of a 12-month measurement period is considered to be 'full-time' under the ACA and as a result they will be offered medical coverage for up to a period of 12 months following the completion of their measurement period (called the ...

What is the 60 20 20 rule?

If you have a large amount of debt that you need to pay off, you can modify your percentage-based budget and follow the 60/20/20 rule. Put 60% of your income towards your needs (including debts), 20% towards your wants, and 20% towards your savings.

What is the 13 week rule for the Affordable Care Act?

Classifying Rehires under the ACA

An employee will be considered to be a terminated and rehired employee if the employee has a period of 13 consecutive weeks during which the employee is not credited with an hour of service.

Can I refuse health insurance from my employer and get Obamacare?

Obamacare is available to everyone, whether or not their employers offer insurance. From a practical standpoint, though, there are financial consequences to doing this. Often, an employer subsidizes part or all of their employees' coverage.

How many hours is a full-time job?

Short answer: Full-time employment is usually considered between 30-40 hours a week, while part-time employment is usually less than 30 hours a week.

What is the ACA hours threshold?

Now, to determine ALE status you must calculate your full-time employees. An ACA full-time employee is someone who works 30 hours a week or 130 hours a month.

What is the eighty hour rule?

For example, if employees work six 8-hour shifts during a week, they would be entitled to overtime under a 40-hour workweek. Under the 8 and 80 system, however, the employees would be entitled to overtime only if they worked more than 80 hours over the 14-day period (assuming no daily overtime).

What is the 54 hour law?

No daily overtime. Weekly overtime required after 54 hours or more than six days in a workweek. In an emergency, employee may work over 54 hours or more than six days in a workweek and must be paid not less than one and one-half times employee's regular rate of pay for all such excess hours.

What is the ACA 3 month rule?

The ACA employer mandate rules permit a “limited non-assessment period” as a sort of grace period before which employers will be penalized for failure to offer coverage to a new hire. For new full-time hires, the duration of this period is relatively short (the first three full calendar months of employment).

How to calculate hours for ACA?

What Is the 'Look-Back' Measurement Method for Calculating Employee Hours?
  1. Combine the total hours worked for the month by all your non-full-time employees. You do not need to include more than 120 hours per employee.
  2. Divide this total number of hours by 120.

Does the ACA 30 hour rule apply to small employers?

When Does the ACA Employer Mandate Apply to You? The Employer Mandate generally applies only to companies that have 50 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. An FTE is 30 hours or more per week. To determine your FTEs, start by counting your full-time staff.

How can I avoid ACA penalty?

To avoid this penalty notice, employers must adhere to the appropriate ACA filing and furnishing deadlines for the applicable tax year. Employers have until March 1 each year to furnish the required 1095-C forms to their full-time staff.

What is the ACA full-time rule?

Definition of full-time employee

For purposes of the employer shared responsibility provisions, a full-time employee is, for a calendar month, an employee employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours of service per month.