How to Calculate a Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
We’ve observed that the term 'FTE' tends to divide people into two camps:
- Those who can effortlessly calculate full-time equivalents (FTEs) and can instantly tell you the FTE total of multiple positions with varying schedules.
- Those who are familiar with the term and know that a full-time worker equals a 1.0 FTE, but may need a moment to calculate anything else.
At FTE Tree, our goal is to simplify the complexities of calculating FTEs for your large and complex organization. While good software makes this process easy, it’s still valuable to understand the underlying math.
We’ve created an "FTE Cheat Sheet" for you to download and print, available in both Excel and PDF formats for your convenience.
*Download for Microsoft Excel or as a PDF File
Understanding Full-Time Equivalents
Calculating a full-time equivalent is straightforward when you think of it as a comparison to a full-time position or schedule. Whether you’re looking at a single day, week, month, quarter, or year, FTEs help monitor staffing levels and compare total hours worked across different periods. Since an FTE represents the amount of time worked compared to a full-time employee in the same organization, you can compare across equal or differing time periods.
For example, it’s easy to compare someone working 40 hours in one week to another person working 40 hours in a different week. But what if you want to compare last week's 40 hours to their average hours for the previous year? This is where FTEs come in handy, allowing you to make meaningful comparisons, regardless of the time period.
While FTEs are often referred to with single decimal places (like 1.0 or 0.8), they are typically reported with two decimals for greater accuracy. In our experience, two decimals are the norm, and this is how our software displays them. If your organization reports aggregated FTEs with more than two decimal places, please let us know—we’d love to learn more!
FTEs Across Different Time Periods
FTEs can be calculated for any time period. Here are some common examples:
Single Day
If a full-time schedule is 8 hours per day, then working 8 hours in a day equals 1.0 FTE for that day.
While calculating an FTE for a single day is simple, it’s not always practical given the variety of schedules people work. However, the math is the same for any other period.
Weekly (40 Hours)
For a 40-hour workweek, which is typical in the United States, an employee working 40 hours per week equals 1.0 FTE. A 32-hour schedule in a 40-hour week equals 0.8 FTE.
This calculation works well for standard full-time schedules, but what happens with longer periods?
Biweekly (80 Hours)
In a typical biweekly pay period, 80 hours is considered full-time. Therefore, working 80 hours in a biweekly period equals 1.0 FTE, and working 64 hours equals 0.8 FTE.
Overtime
What if someone works more than the full-time hours for a period? The math is still the same. For example, working 90 hours in an 80-hour period equals 1.13 FTEs.
Annual (2,080 Hours)
You can extend this logic to any period, including a full year. Most organizations calculate annual FTEs based on 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year, totaling 2,080 hours.
Exceptions to the 2,080-Hour Year
While 2,080 hours per year is the standard for operational planning, some organizations might use a different figure, often due to accounting nuances like leap years. However, 2,080 hours is typically a safe assumption for most calculations.
Ready to Calculate FTEs?
By now, you should feel confident in calculating FTEs! Just remember to divide the number of hours worked by the total hours a full-time worker would work in the same period. If you need any assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to us or email us at support@ftetree.com.
FTE Tree: Managing FTEs Accurately
At FTE Tree, we support not only your operations leaders but also your finance and HR teams. Our software allows you to enter FTEs directly or as a specific schedule over various periods (1, 7, 14, or 28 days). We also support dynamic annual FTE hour calculations to ensure accurate annual cost estimates based on specific FTEs or schedules. For more information on configuring annual hours per FTE, visit our Help Center.
Sign Up Today to Try FTE Tree
Join us at FTE Tree and let us handle the complexities of tracking and managing FTEs for your organization. We’d be thrilled to welcome you to our platform.