Work Hours to FTE Calculator

Full-time equivalent (FTE) expresses part-time hours as a fraction of a full-time schedule. Divide weekly hours by the standard full-time week — commonly 40 hours in the US — to get FTE. Two people each working 20 hours per week equals 1.0 FTE combined.

Grant applications, staffing models, and benefits eligibility often use FTE. The standard week varies — some organizations use 37.5 or 35 hours. Enter your own standard if it differs from 40.

Example: 30 hours per week ÷ 40 = 0.75 FTE. Three employees at 25 hours each total 75 ÷ 40 = 1.875 FTE.

US benefits rules use their own definition, so expect two different answers for the same staff. Under the Affordable Care Act an employee is full-time at 30 hours per week, and part-time hours are converted by totalling monthly hours and dividing by 120 — an ACA full-time-equivalent count is not the same figure as a 40-hour planning FTE.

Federal grant budgets usually state effort as a percentage of an appointment rather than raw hours, and they cap the total. A 12-month appointment at 25% effort is 0.25 FTE, and committed effort across all awards cannot exceed 1.0 FTE regardless of how many hours the person actually works.

For capacity planning the ratio is deliberately uncapped: 50 hours against a 40-hour standard reads as 1.25 FTE, which is a quick way to see where sustained overtime is quietly covering an unfilled position. Most HR systems, by contrast, cap the reported value at 1.0 per person.

FTE measures time, not cost. Two people at 0.5 FTE usually cost more than one at 1.0 once benefits, onboarding, and per-employee payroll taxes are counted, so use FTE for capacity and a separate payroll model for budget.

Rounding matters in reporting. A team totalling 7.4 FTE is often published as 7, and repeated rounding across departments can lose a full position from a headcount summary — keep one decimal until the final total.

Seasonal employers sometimes express staffing as average FTE across the year — part-time summer hires and full-time winter crews blend into one decimal that differs from peak-week headcount.