What is the ACA hours threshold?

Asked by: Harold Lesch  |  Last update: October 30, 2025
Score: 5/5 (56 votes)

As a reminder, the ACA requires employers with fifty or more FTEs (an FTE is an employee who works at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month) to offer minimum essential health coverage to at least 95% of those FTEs and their dependents.

What is the minimum number of hours 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.

What is the ACA full-time threshold?

A full-time employee for any calendar month is an employee who has on average at least 30 hours of service per week during the calendar month, or at least 130 hours of service during the calendar month.

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 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).

Affordable Care Act: Which Employees Count Towards the Threshold?

16 related questions found

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 13 week rule for ACA?

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.

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 ...

How are ACA work hours calculated?

Under the 'monthly' measurement approach, the employer can calculate an employee's hours on a month-by-month basis. If an employee works at least 130 hours each month or at least 30 hours per week in a calendar month, they are a full-time employee.

What are the ACA minimum requirements?

An employer-sponsored plan provides minimum value if it covers at least 60 percent of the total allowed cost of benefits that are expected to be incurred under the plan.

What is the ACA threshold for 2024?

As a result, employers will have more flexibility in making their employee premiums meet the affordable safe harbor for next year as required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The move follows three years of decreases from 9.83% in 2021 to as low as 8.39% in 2024.

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 are ACA limits?

The ACA also requires maximum annual out-of-pocket spending limits on cost sharing under Marketplace plans, with reduced limits for CSR plans. In 2025, the maximum OOP limit will be $9,200 ($18,400 family) for all QHPs with lower maximum OOP limits permitted under cost sharing reduction plans (Table 4).

Is the ACA rule for 30 hours full-time?

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.

What are the ACA requirements for employers in 2024?

Employers must report employee insurance information with the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) once per year. Information should be submitted to the state using federal Forms 1094-C, 1095-C, and 1095-B. Organizations must also distribute copies to employees.

What FTE is considered full-time?

FTE 100% refers to a full-time employee or the equivalent of a full-time employee. In most companies, this means the employee works 40 hours, but some companies use other time amounts to describe full-time status. This can also be described as a 1.0 FTE value.

What is FTE for ACA?

Full-time employee (FTE) Any employee who works an average of at least 30 hours per week for more than 120 days in a year.

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.

How to calculate ACA eligibility?

Calculating ACA Affordability
  1. Step 1: Determine the Employee's Household Income. The first step in calculating ACA affordability is determining the employee's household income. ...
  2. Step 2: Calculate the Affordability Threshold. ...
  3. Step 3: Determine the Cost of the Lowest-Cost Self-Only Coverage. ...
  4. Step 4: Adjust for Inflation.

What counts as ACA hours?

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).

What is the ACA employer mandate threshold?

Employer mandate overview

It applies to employers with 50* or more full-time employees, and/or full-time equivalents (FTEs).

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

If the employee is rehired after a period of at least 13 consecutive weeks where they did not work or provide an hour of service, the employer can treat the employee as a new employee. Rule of Parity.

What is the 3 month rule for ACA?

The MMM rules permit a “limited non-assessment period” (a short period where the employer is not penalized for failure to offer coverage) during the period of three full calendar months beginning with the first full calendar month in which the employee is otherwise eligible to be offered coverage under the employer's ...

What is the ACA threshold for benefits?

On September 6, 2024, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2024-35. It announced that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affordability threshold is increased from 8.39% for 2024 to 9.02% for 2025.

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.