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Category: What To Know

I work for a large employer (more than 50 full time employees) but my hours vary during the year. I work full-time during the summer but part-time the rest of the year. Does my employer have to offer me health benefits?

Large employers must offer health benefits to employees who work, on average, at least 30 hours per week, or else pay a tax penalty. Check with your employer/human resources department to find out if your hours worked over the year meet this threshold. If your hours vary during the year, your employer may have some options in determining your status as a full-time or part-time worker. Your employer can tell you whether you are a full or part-time worker.

I work part-time for a large employer. Is my employer required to offer me health benefits? What about benefits for my spouse and kids?

No, large employers are not required to offer health benefits to part time employees and there is no penalty for large employers that don’t offer health benefits to part-time employees or their dependents. If you work part-time and you are not offered health benefits, you (and your family) can apply for coverage in the Marketplace; and, if your income is between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, you can apply for a premium tax credit that may reduce the cost of coverage in the Marketplace.

Note that a part-time employee is one that works, on average, fewer than 30 hours per week. If your hours vary during the year, your employer may have some options in determining your status as a full-time or part-time worker. Your employer can tell you whether you are a full or part-time worker.

I work full time for a large employer (more than 50 full time employees) and I’m married and we have kids. Is my employer required to offer health benefits that cover my spouse and kids?

Your employer is not required to offer health benefits. However, large employers that don’t offer health benefits to their full-time employees and to their dependent children may be liable for a tax penalty. Large employers do not face a tax penalty if they don’t offer health benefits to the spouses of their workers.

If your employer doesn’t offer coverage to your spouse or children, they can apply for coverage in the Marketplace and, if your family income is between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, a premium tax credit that may reduce the cost of coverage in the Marketplace.

If your employer offers health benefits (that are affordable and meet minimum value) to you and your spouse and children, you still may choose to purchase coverage through a Marketplace, but your family will not be eligible for premium tax credits to help pay for the coverage.

I work full time for a large employer (more than 50 full time employees). Is my employer required to offer me health benefits?

Your employer is not required to offer health benefits. However, large employers that don’t offer health benefits to full-time employees and to their dependent children may be liable for a tax penalty. If your employer doesn’t offer you health benefits, you can apply for coverage in the Marketplace; and, if your income is between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, you may apply for a premium tax credit that may reduce the cost of coverage in the Marketplace.

Note that a full-time employee is one who works, on average, at least 30 hours per week. If your hours vary during the year, your employer may have some options in determining your status as a full-time or part-time worker. Your employer can tell you whether you are a full or part-time worker.

I use a farm labor contractor to provide most of the workers for my farm. Is the contractor required to provide health benefits or am I?

The proposed IRS rules governing employer responsibilities utilize the common law standard to identify whether an individual is an “employee” of a business, for the purposes of assigning employer responsibility to provide coverage. In general, this means that an employer has the right to direct what an employee does and how it is done. Whether a farm labor contractor or a farm itself is responsible for providing coverage thus depends on which entity “directs what an employee does and how it is done.”

What are the penalties for me, as an employer, if I don’t provide health benefits to my seasonal workers?

If you are a large employer, you will face a penalty if you do not offer affordable coverage that meets minimum value to all of your full-time employees and their dependent children. If, as an employer, you’re unsure whether or not your seasonal workers are full-time employees, you can use a special measurement period (a three- to twelve-month look back, at your discretion) to decide if your employees are in fact seasonal or full-time. During this measurement period, you don’t have to offer coverage, but if it turns out an employee did work full-time during that measurement period, you must treat that employee as full time during a subsequent “stability” period (which must be the longer of six months or the length of the measurement period that you chose) and offer that worker health benefits regardless of their actual hours worked during the stability period. Full-time means the employee worked on average 30 hours a week over the measurement period.

My workers are seasonal employees. Do I count them in determining whether I am a large employer?

In general, an employer is considered a “large” employer for the purposes of the Affordable Care Act if the employer has more than 50 full-time-equivalent workers per year. Seasonal workers do count among your full-time employees unless your business qualifies for the seasonal worker exemption. The seasonal worker exemption applies if: a) you had more than 50 employees for fewer than 120 days, and b) during the 120 period you would have had fewer than 50 employees if you excluded your seasonal workers. The 120 days (or 4 months) do not need to be consecutive. For example, Farm A has 30 full-time, year round employees, and hires 25 workers to work 50 hours per week during a 2-month planting season in the winter, and then invites the same crew back for a 3-month harvest season in the fall. Farm A is a “large” employer because the Farm employs more than 50 full-time workers for more than 120 days.

Farm B has 30 full-time, year round employees, and hires 25 workers to work 50 hours per week during a 3 month harvest only. This employer is a “small” employer because the number of full-time employees exceeded 50 during a period that is less than 120 days, and during that time the seasonal worker exemption applies, because after excluding the seasonal employees you had fewer than 50 full-time workers.

I’m an employer with agricultural workers. Am I required to provide health benefits to all of my workers?

If you are a large employer (you have more than 50 full-time equivalent employees), you may owe a penalty if you do not provide affordable and minimum essential coverage to all of your full-time employees. A full-time employee is one that averages more than 30 hours per week of work, although there are special rules for employees with variable hours.