Part-time employees work fewer hours than the full-time threshold and can be excluded from coverage when eligibility rules are applied consistently. For ACA and COBRA counting, part-time hours are combined into full-time equivalents.
Generally no. Participation is measured among benefits-eligible (usually full-time) employees, so part-timers who aren’t eligible for the plan are typically excluded from the calculation.
A seasonal employee works full-time hours but only for a limited part of the year. Under the seasonal-worker exception, an employer that exceeds 50 FTEs for no more than 120 days a year solely because of seasonal workers may not be treated as an ALE.
A full-time-equivalent (FTE) combines part-time hours to test ALE status: add the monthly hours of non-full-time staff (capped at 120 hours each) and divide by 120. FTEs count toward the 50-employee threshold but do not themselves have to be offered coverage.