LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic online) - "The term 'full-time employee' means, with respect to any month, an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week," section 1513 of the law reads.  

Known as the employer mandate, this section of the health care reform law requires any business with 50 or more full-time employees to provide at least the minimum level of government-defined health coverage to those employees.

Under the mandate, a business must provide insurance if it has 50 or more employees working an average of just 30 hours per week. This is 10 hours per week fewer than the traditional 40-hour work week.

Therefore, if an employer has 50 or more "full-time employees" and does not offer health insurance, it must pay a penalty per employee for each month it does not offer coverage.

This well-concealed provision recently reemerged in regulations issued by the IRS for how employers must account for which workers are full-time, and which ones are not.

Employers can choose a "look-back" period of between three and 12 months to measure if an employee has worked an average of 30 hours per week.

If an employee has worked 30 hours per week during this time, the person would count as a full-time employee for at least the next six months. This, despite how much they work, thus preventing employers from cutting hours to avoid the mandate.

An employer will need to calculate the hour an employee works during at least a three-month period, determining if they employee has worked 30 hours or more per week on average.

If the employee meets the 30-hour threshold, they are counted as full-time for at least six months. If the employer has at least 50 such employees, he must provide them with health insurance or pay a fine.

These IRS regulations do not apply to seasonal or temporary workers, only to regular employees.

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