FTE Calculator

FTE Calculator: full-time equivalent for one person or a team

This FTE calculator turns hours worked into full-time equivalent (FTE) for one person or a whole team. It can also turn an FTE figure back into hours, or work from annual hours.

Nothing you enter leaves this page.

FTE meaning: what full-time equivalent is used for

FTE stands for full-time equivalent. It expresses the hours someone works as a share of a full-time schedule. A person who works every full-time hour is 1.0 FTE. A person who works half of those hours is 0.5 FTE. Adding up the FTE of everyone in a team tells you how many full-time workers the team’s hours are equal to.

Employers mainly use FTE for three things:

• Budgeting. Pay budgets and approved posts are usually set in FTE, because two people at 0.5 FTE cost about the same in salary as one full-time person.
• Headcount reporting. Headcount counts people. FTE counts hours. Reporting both shows how much of a workforce is part time.
• Pro rata (prorated) pay and leave. A part-time salary is usually the full-time salary multiplied by the person’s FTE. Someone at 0.6 FTE in a job that pays 40,000 full time would be paid 24,000. Leave and many benefits are often scaled in the same way.

There is no single legal number of hours that counts as full time in the UK. GOV.UK guidance on part-time workers says a full-time worker will usually work 35 hours or more a week. Use the full-time week written into your own contracts or policy.

How to calculate FTE

FTE = hours worked ÷ full-time hours

Hours = FTE × full-time hours

FTE from annual hours = hours worked in a year ÷ (full-time hours a week × 52)

Use the same period on both sides of the sum. Weekly hours go against the full-time week. Annual hours go against the full-time year. This full time equivalent calculator uses 52 weeks for a year, so a 37.5 hour week is 1,950 hours a year and a 40 hour week is 2,080 hours a year.

Worked example: using the FTE calculator for a team of five

A team has a full-time week of 37.5 hours. Two people work 37.5 hours, one works 30, one works 22.5 and one works 15. The total is 142.5 hours a week. 142.5 ÷ 37.5 = 3.8 FTE. The headcount is 5 and the average is 0.76 FTE per person. The person on 22.5 hours is 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = 0.6 FTE, which is 1,170 hours a year. Enter these numbers in the FTE calculator above and you will see the same results.

People who work more than full-time hours

For headcount reporting and pro rata pay, one person is normally counted as no more than 1.0 FTE, even if they work overtime. The team mode applies this limit by default. Untick the box if you want FTE to reflect all hours worked, which can be useful for workload planning.

US readers: FTE under the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) uses its own definitions to decide whether an employer is an applicable large employer. The IRS says a full-time employee is one employed on average at least 30 hours of service a week, or 130 hours of service a month. To count full-time equivalent employees for a month, an employer adds up the hours of service of all employees who are not full time, counting no more than 120 hours for any one employee, and divides the total by 120. In an IRS example, 15 part-time employees who each work 60 hours a month total 900 hours, which is 7.5 FTEs. See the IRS pages on identifying full-time employees and determining if an employer is an applicable large employer. These are federal rules and state rules can differ. The calculator above uses the general formula, not the ACA method.

This page gives general information. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.

Questions about FTE

What does FTE mean?

FTE means full-time equivalent. It shows the hours a person works as a share of a full-time schedule. Someone who works all the full-time hours is 1.0 FTE and someone who works half of them is 0.5 FTE.

How do you calculate FTE?

Divide the hours a person works by the hours in a full-time schedule. A person who works 22.5 hours where full time is 37.5 hours is 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = 0.6 FTE. For a team, add up everyone’s hours and divide by the full-time hours. The FTE calculator on this page does both.

What is 0.5 FTE in hours?

0.5 FTE is half of the full-time week. That is 18.75 hours a week where full time is 37.5 hours, and 20 hours a week where full time is 40 hours.

Is 30 hours a week full time or part time?

It depends on the employer and the rule being applied. Against a 37.5 hour full-time week, 30 hours is 0.8 FTE. Against a 40 hour week it is 0.75 FTE. In the US, the IRS treats an average of at least 30 hours of service a week as full time for Affordable Care Act purposes. In the UK there is no specific number of hours that makes someone full time or part time.

What is the difference between FTE and headcount?

Headcount is the number of people. FTE is the number of full-time schedules their hours add up to. A team of five people working 37.5, 37.5, 30, 22.5 and 15 hours has a headcount of 5 and, with a 37.5 hour full-time week, 3.8 FTE.

How many hours a year is 1.0 FTE?

Multiply the full-time week by 52. A 37.5 hour week is 1,950 hours a year and a 40 hour week is 2,080 hours a year. Some employers subtract paid leave and public holidays to get productive hours, so check which basis your organisation uses.