Employers of part-time workers may face particular HR compliance challenges in connection with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
The law requires employers to provide reasonable health insurance to full-time employees, a group defined as those who work at least 30 hours per week. However, the classification of those who work fewer hours is not always clear, according to one expert. The matter becomes particularly complex when dealing with temporary or seasonal workers, who may have fluctuating hours.
How they are classified is important in several ways. Employers with at least 50 full-time workers are required to pay a penalty if they do not provide employee benefit health insurance, and qualifying employees are eligible for certain tax credits. There are a variety of tax implications depending on employee classifications, so companies are eagerly awaiting guidance on the matter in order to resolve lingering questions about the PPACA.
The matter of seasonal and temporary employees may be dealt with by having employers look back at a year and calculate average hours worked, or using a similar method. This would yield a figure that could then be compared to the qualifications for full-time employment as a basis for assessing eligibility.
