The Full Form of FTE is‍ Full-time employees.

A full-time job is employment in which a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer. Full-time employment often comes with benefits that are not typically offered to part-time, temporary, or flexible workers, such as annual leave, sickleave, and health insurance. 

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.  

There are two methods for determining full-time employee status: 

• The monthly measurement method, and 
• The look-back measurement method. 

Under the monthly measurement method, the employer determines if an employee is a full-time employee on a month-by-month basis by looking at whether the employee has at least 130 hours of service for each month. 

Under the look-back measurement method, an employer may determine the status of an employee as a full-time employee during what is referred to as the stability period, based upon the hours of service of the employee in the preceding period, which is referred to as the measurement period. The look-back measurement method may not be used to determine full-time employee status for purposes of ALE status determination. 

Determining which employees are full-time employees is central to the employer shared responsibility provisions.  An employer must identify its full-time employees as part of determining:

1. If it is an ALE and, therefore, subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions;
2. To whom it must offer minimum essential coverage to avoid  an employer shared responsibility payment; and
3. The amount of any potential liability for an employer shared responsibility payment. Note that an employer is not obligated to calculate its liability, and should not make a payment without first being contacted by the IRS.