What this measures
Headcount alone can be misleading once part-time schedules are involved. Ten people each working half-time isn't the same labor capacity as ten full-timers, it's five. Full-time equivalent (FTE) converts everyone's hours onto one scale, so you can compare, budget, and plan against a single, consistent number.
The formula
The same formula works in both directions. Use it to see how much labor capacity your current team represents, or flip it around to figure out how many full-time people a project's required hours would take.
A quick example
Say you have 5 full-time employees working 40 hours a week each, plus 3 part-time employees working 20 hours a week each. That's 260 total hours. Divided by a 40 hour standard, that's 6.5 FTE, the same labor capacity as 6 full-timers and one more half-time.
Frequently asked questions
Is FTE the same as the ACA's definition of full-time?
Not quite, and it's a common mix-up. The 40 hour figure here is the standard unit used to measure labor capacity in general. The Affordable Care Act separately defines an individual as full-time at 30 hours a week or more for the purpose of health coverage requirements. This calculator handles the general FTE measurement, not the specific rules around who counts as full-time for ACA employer mandate purposes, which have their own detailed criteria worth checking with a qualified advisor if that's what you're determining.
Should I cap someone at 1.0 FTE if they work overtime?
It depends on what you're measuring. For raw labor capacity planning, someone working 50 hours against a 40 hour standard really is contributing 1.25 FTE worth of work. For compliance-style headcount rules, a person is often still just one person no matter how many hours they log, which is what the cap option is for.
What period should I use, weekly, monthly, or annual?
Any period works as long as you're consistent. Just make sure the total hours and the standard hours you enter cover the same period, weekly numbers against a weekly standard, or annual numbers against an annual standard like 2,080 hours.
What do I do with the FTE number once I have it?
It's mainly useful for comparing workforce size consistently, budgeting labor needs for a project, or benchmarking against other teams or periods. If you also want to see what that labor actually costs in dollars, our Employee Cost Calculator handles that side of the picture.