There's no single legal definition. The IRS and Affordable Care Act use 30 hours per week as the cutoff. The BLS defines part-time as under 35 hours. Individual employers can set their own threshold, usually between 25 and 35 hours. Whether you're "part-time" depends on which definition applies to your situation.
| Defining body | Part-time threshold | What it matters for |
|---|---|---|
| IRS / Affordable Care Act | Less than 30 hrs/week (or 130/month) | Employer health insurance mandate |
| Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) | Less than 35 hrs/week | Labor market statistics |
| Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) | No definition | Federal law has no PT/FT line |
| Most US employers | 30-35 hrs/week | Benefits eligibility |
| Retail / hospitality | Often under 30 hrs | Avoiding benefit thresholds |
| UK | Less than 35 hrs/week typically | No statutory definition |
| Canada (Statistics Canada) | Less than 30 hrs/week | Employment statistics |
Under the Affordable Care Act, "full-time" means 30+ hours per week or 130+ hours per month. Employers with 50+ full-time equivalent employees must offer health insurance to full-time workers.
This is why many large employers (especially in retail and hospitality) carefully cap part-time hours at 29 or 28 per week — to avoid the ACA "full-time" classification and the health insurance mandate.
If you're being scheduled for exactly 28 or 29 hours, that's why.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act doesn't define part-time or full-time at all. Whether you're considered "part-time" doesn't affect:
So if you're a "part-time" employee working 35 hours in one week and 45 in another, you're still entitled to 5 hours of overtime pay for the 45-hour week.
The threshold matters because of benefits eligibility:
The cost difference between a 29-hour and 30-hour employee can be $5,000–$10,000 per year in benefits. That's a strong incentive for employers to schedule around the threshold.
Different workers commonly considered "part-time":
Part-time pay scales linearly. A 25-hour week at $20/hour:
| Hours/week | $15/hr | $20/hr | $25/hr | $35/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 hrs/wk | $15,000 | $20,000 | $25,000 | $35,000 |
| 25 hrs/wk | $18,750 | $25,000 | $31,250 | $43,750 |
| 28 hrs/wk | $21,000 | $28,000 | $35,000 | $49,000 |
| 30 hrs/wk | $22,500 | $30,000 | $37,500 | $52,500 |
| 35 hrs/wk | $26,250 | $35,000 | $43,750 | $61,250 |
| 40 hrs/wk | $30,000 | $40,000 | $50,000 | $70,000 |
Annual figures assume 50 working weeks. Use the Salary Calculator for custom scenarios.
Part-time workers still get overtime if they exceed 40 hours in a workweek. If a 25-hour-per-week worker covers a sick colleague's shift and works 45 hours, they get 5 hours of OT pay.
Critically: states with daily OT (California, Alaska) require time-and-a-half after 8 hours/day even if total weekly hours are under 40. A part-timer in California working two 10-hour shifts would get 4 hours of daily OT.
Employees moving between PT and FT can run into issues:
Some employers (Microsoft Japan, Buffer, various UK pilots) have experimented with 32-hour, 4-day workweeks at full pay. By traditional definitions this is "part-time" by hours but full-time by classification, pay, and benefits.
If you're negotiating a 4-day week, clarify in writing:
Use the Hours Calculator to log a week of work and see exactly where you fall relative to the 30-hour ACA threshold and the 40-hour OT line.
Published May 2026. Spot an error? Email contactus@calculatehours.net.