The size of a company’s workforce matters for Health Care Reform purposes.
Large employers must offer coverage to full-time employees or pay a penalty. A large employer for the current calendar year is determined based on the number of employees employed during the prior calendar year. An employer with 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees is a large employer for health care reform purposes.
To calculate the number of employees, add the total number of full-time employees for each month of the prior calendar year to the total number of full-time equivalent employees for each calendar month of the prior calendar year, and then divide by 12. A full-time employee is one who works 120 or more hours per month (different from the full-time calculation for ongoing employees, which is 130 hours per month).
For more information, refer to the IRS publication on determining large employer status which can be found by clicking here.