It might appear odd to revisit the thought of full-time vs. part-time work. In spite of everything, we’ve used the phrases for ages at this level.
However have you ever ever sat down and outlined part-time vs. full-time work at your small business? What it means to be full-time vs. part-time, the distribution of every throughout your groups, and if this distribution greatest serve your objectives?
It’s a simple train with the potential for an enormous payoff. It may possibly make it clearer which employment legal guidelines apply to you (and might profit you and your workers), enable you construct higher groups, and be a extra environment friendly, worthwhile operation general.
Let’s begin by wanting on the authorized definitions of the 2 varieties of work—or, extra precisely, a scarcity thereof.
What is taken into account a part-time job?
Whereas there’s no concrete definition of part-time work within the US, what separates part-time work from full-time work largely comes all the way down to the variety of working hours.
Right here’s what three governing our bodies must say on the matter:
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- US Division of Labor (DOL): “The Honest Labor Requirements Act (FLSA) doesn’t outline full-time employment or part-time employment. It is a matter usually to be decided by the employer.”
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): “Full-time staff are those that normally work 35 or extra hours per week. Half-time staff are those that normally work fewer than 35 hours per week.”
- Inner Income Service (IRS): “For functions of the employer shared duty provisions, a full-time worker is, for a calendar month, an worker employed on common a minimum of 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours of service monthly.”
When it comes to authority, you might need to take heed to the DOL and IRS greater than the BLS.
That’s as a result of the BLS’s definitions of full time and half time come from the Present Inhabitants Survey (CPS) and are for statistical functions solely. This implies their definitions, whereas helpful in letting you understand how part-time work is at the moment being outlined by actual US employers, aren’t authorized definitions.
With all of this in thoughts, we are able to loosely outline a part-time job within the US as:
- A job with fewer than 30 working hours per week, or 130 hours monthly, except in any other case outlined by the employer.
Sorts of part-time jobs
There are numerous jobs that may be fulfilled on a part-time foundation. Among the most typical embody:
- Retail positions (cashier, gross sales affiliate)
- Customer support consultant
- Receptionist or entrance desk positions
- Administrative assistant
- Information entry clerk
- Meals service jobs (waiter/waitress, barista)
- Tutor or educating assistant
- Freelance or gig work (writing, graphic design, programming)
- Library assistant or clerk
- Name heart operator
- Private assistant or secretary
- Occasion employees or coordinator
- Childcare supplier or babysitter
- Health teacher or private coach
- Residence well being aide or caregiver
- Receptionist or entrance desk positions
- Telemarketer
- Analysis assistant
- Supply driver
What’s a full-time job?
Like with part-time work, there’s nobody authorized definition of full-time work within the US.
Nonetheless, constructing on our free definition of part-time work as 30 or fewer working hours per week, we are able to loosely outline a full-time job within the US as:
- A job with 31-40 working hours per week (usually nearer to 40), or as outlined by the employer.
Sorts of full-time jobs
Some jobs which are extra sometimes crammed on a full-time foundation embody:
- Software program developer or programmer
- Registered nurse or healthcare skilled
- Accountant or monetary analyst
- Advertising supervisor or specialist
- Human sources supervisor or specialist
- Undertaking supervisor
- Gross sales consultant or gross sales supervisor
- Instructor or educator
- Engineer (civil, mechanical, electrical, and so forth.)
- Operations supervisor
- Customer support supervisor
- IT (Info Know-how) specialist or administrator
- Lawyer or authorized assistant
- Managerial roles in retail, hospitality, or different industries
- Monetary advisor or planner
- Scientist or researcher
- Social employee
- Electrician or plumber
- Police officer or regulation enforcement skilled
- Architect
- Graphic designer or artwork director
Professionals and cons of part-time jobs
Professionals of part-time jobs
- Flexibility: Having part-time staff makes scheduling simpler. You may modify staffing ranges primarily based on our enterprise wants, and extra simply discover fill-ins if somebody calls in sick.
- Value financial savings: Pay, advantages, and different worker prices are sometimes decrease with part-time workers than with full-time ones.
- Numerous talent units: The much less dedicated nature of part-time work makes bringing in new folks simpler, which is usually a blessing in the event you want specialised experience for particular duties.
- Adaptability: As demand wavers, you possibly can simply improve and reduce your staff’s capability with part-time staff.
- Elevated productiveness: Working fewer hours, part-time staff can carry extra vitality to their jobs.
- Entry to a bigger labor pool: You may faucet right into a broader pool of obtainable staff, equivalent to college students, retirees, and people looking for supplemental revenue for part-time positions.
- Threat mitigation: Much less dedication means much less threat throughout unsure occasions.
Cons of part-time jobs
- Lowered continuity: Half-time staff, given their totally different schedules, might not have the identical degree of dedication and continuity as your full-time staff members. This might doubtlessly impression your staff’s cohesion.
- Coaching prices: Coping with fixed turnover amongst part-time workers might lead to larger coaching prices, as new hires would possibly want extra frequent onboarding.
- Much less worker engagement: Half-time staff may not really feel as linked to your organization tradition, resulting in decrease ranges of engagement and loyalty.
- Attainable communication challenges: Juggling the various schedules of part-time staff would possibly introduce some communication and coordination challenges.
- Potential for burnout: Half-time staff might produce other obligations exterior of their job with you, which could imply burnout from burning the candle at each ends.
Professionals and cons of full-time jobs
Professionals of full-time jobs
- Consistency and stability: The peace of getting secure, full-time workers is likely to be price greater than what you’d save bringing in part-time staff.
- Increased dedication: Anticipate larger ranges of dedication to your organization, objectives, and long-term success.
- Profession growth: Full-time staff usually tend to develop and advance inside your organization.
- Funding in coaching: It’s simpler to take a position when you recognize somebody’s going to be round for some time.
- Higher staff integration: Familiarity and consistency lends to staff bonding, and a bonded staff means a extra productive, pleased staff.
Cons of full-time jobs
- Increased prices: Going full-time usually means extra advantages like medical insurance and retirement plans, bumping up your general labor prices.
- Lowered flexibility: Full-time staff may not have the identical wiggle room of their schedules, making it trickier to rapidly adapt when workloads change or somebody calls in sick.
- Potential for burnout: Longer hours means extra of a threat of burnout, particularly over prolonged intervals of time.
- Restricted entry to specialised expertise: Bringing in a part-time employee for a selected talent or process is loads simpler (and sometimes extra inexpensive).
- Much less adaptability: If one thing modifications at your organization, reorganizing a full-time workforce is usually more difficult.
Funds and advantages
Hours labored is a technique wherein part-time and full-time workers differ; one other is how they’re paid and the advantages they obtain.
Half-time fee and advantages
There’s no regulation stating how part-time workers have to be paid. That mentioned, the most typical solution to pay part-time workers is by the hour.
A time clock begins when part-time workers clock in for work at first of the day, pauses once they go for break or lunch, resumes afterward, and ends each time they go away for the day. The full time labored throughout this time is what their paychecks are primarily based on.
When you pay workers by the hour, you have to a minimum of pay them your state’s authorized minimal wage. In case your state doesn’t have a minimal wage, you have to a minimum of pay them the federal minimal wage of $7.25 an hour.
In instances the place part-time work exceeds 40 hours per week (keep in mind, there is no such thing as a said authorized boundary separating part-time from full-time work), you additionally must pay extra time. Based on the Division of Labor, extra time pay is “not lower than time and one-half the common price of pay for all hours labored over 40 hours in a workweek.
For instance, in the event you usually pay somebody $10 an hour, you would want to pay them a minimum of $15 an hour for extra time.
Take into account that extra time solely applies to non-exempt staff, who’re each hourly and salaried staff that:
- Earn lower than $684 per week or $35,568 yearly
- Carry out job duties exterior of the exempt professions
Aside from being paid hourly, part-time staff might obtain a set wage or a predetermined quantity for finishing a selected venture or process
There will also be combos of fee strategies. For instance, somebody could also be paid by the hour and earn a fee on gross sales they make.
Do part-time workers get advantages?
US regulation doesn’t cowl the supply of advantages to part-time workers.
Which means, so long as you comply with all minimal federal, state, and native necessities, you’ve got management over which part-time workers get which advantages, if any.
Full-time fee and advantages
Past what’s required within the Honest Labor Requirements Act (FLSA), the US authorities doesn’t mandate how full-time workers are to be paid.
Whereas full-time workers will be paid hourly, they mostly obtain a set wage. That is most frequently a lump sum paid month-to-month, or bi-monthly, primarily based on an assumed, ongoing 40-hour-per-week dedication.
The identical guidelines outlined above round extra time apply to full-time work: If a non-exempt full-time worker works greater than 40 hours per week, that worker is entitled to extra time pay.
Do full-time workers get advantages?
Largely talking, you’re not required by regulation to offer full-time workers advantages, which might embody:
- Medical insurance
- Retirement plans (e.g., 401(okay))
- Paid day without work (trip, holidays, sick go away)
- Life insurance coverage
- Incapacity insurance coverage
- Versatile spending accounts (FSAs)
- Well being financial savings accounts (HSAs)
- Worker help applications (EAPs)
- Academic help/tuition reimbursement
- Wellness applications
- Versatile work preparations
- Worker reductions
Generally, you are required to offer advantages. Think about these examples (learn extra about every of those acts within the part beneath):
- The Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA) requires relevant massive employers (these with 50 or extra full-time equal workers) to supply inexpensive medical insurance that meets sure minimal important protection requirements.
- The Household and Medical Go away Act (FMLA) requires lined employers to offer eligible workers with unpaid, job-protected go away for specified household and medical causes. Nonetheless, that is go away with out pay.
It additionally is dependent upon the place you’re situated within the nation, as there are state and native rules referring to advantages. For instance, in Massachusetts, workers who work for employers having 11 or extra workers might earn and use as much as 40 hours of paid sick time per calendar 12 months.
Exterior of those conditions, which advantages you present—and to whom—is essentially as much as you.
Full-time and part-time employment regulation
To your personal analysis, we advocate studying these items of laws on the subject of full- vs. part-time jobs.
Honest Labor Requirements Act (FLSA)
The Honest Labor Requirements Act (FLSA) establishes minimal wage, extra time pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment requirements affecting workers within the non-public sector and in Federal, State, and native governments.
The Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA)
The “Reasonably priced Care Act” (ACA) is the title for the great well being care reform regulation (handed in 2010) and its amendments. The regulation addresses medical insurance protection, well being care prices, and preventive care.
Worker Retirement Earnings Safety Act (ERISA)
The Worker Retirement Earnings Safety Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal regulation that units minimal requirements for many voluntarily established retirement and well being plans in non-public trade to offer safety for people in these plans.
The Household and Medical Go away Act (FMLA)
The FMLA entitles eligible workers of lined employers to take unpaid, job-protected go away for specified household and medical causes with continuation of group medical insurance protection underneath the identical phrases and situations as if the worker had not taken go away.
