There are no very clear definitions of full-time or part-time in the State of Florida, but there are some thresholds you need to be conversant with. In Florida, full-time employment is noted as an individual working a workweek of 25 hours or more.

However, this term is mostly reserved for insurance purposes. A good number of Florida employers classify employees as full-time if they work more than 32 hours per week. Florida state laws state that a full-time day is 10 hours or a 40-hour workweek.

The legal application of this standard is different from the managerial application. Most full-time Florida employees work five, eight-hour shifts or four, ten-hour shifts. For the Affordable Care Act (which grants access to healthcare benefits), an employee is considered eligible if they work more than 35 hours per week.

However, note that to qualify to obtain Florida state unemployment benefits from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity for a reduction in working hours, you will have to work a set number of hours each week for a full year.

When it comes to company health benefits under Florida law, an employee is considered eligible if they work twenty or more hours a week. When it has to do with overtime, a full working week falls within 40 hours! Hourly employees who are working more than this number of hours will need to be paid overtime wages, whether they are considered full-time or part-time.

Full-Time Employment Laws in the State of Florida

Full-time laws and part-time laws in the state of Florida are known to be quite similar to each other. While part-time employment tends to involve a lot fewer hours and benefits, full-time employees are known to benefit more. However, both forms of employment have the same general employee rights under Florida state and federal laws. Nonetheless here are full-time employment laws in the state of Florida to note;

  1. Full-time Employment Wages

In the State of Florida, employers are not allowed to pay full-time employees wages that are lower than Florida’s minimum wage. Florida’s minimum wage is currently $8.65 per hour for hourly workers and $684 per week for salaried employees.

Full-time hourly workers are also allowed to receive overtime pay for workweeks that go beyond 40 hours. Also, note there are no hours per shift requirement that influences overtime pay under current labor laws.

  1. Full-time Employment Benefits

Although Florida’s labor laws do not mandate employers to pay full-time employees any form of benefits package, have in mind that they can choose to offer these perks and benefits to attract and retain employees for the long-term. Some of the benefits employers can offer full-time employees include:

  • Health insurance
  • Retirement savings accounts
  • Paid time off (PTO)
  • Vacation time
  • Sick leave
  • Gym memberships
  1. Full-time Employment and Termination

Wrongful termination in Florida can be quite confusing, especially since Florida is considered an at-will state. It simply entails that a person can leave a job for any genuine reason without notice, and employers can also sack a worker for nearly any reason without giving notice.

Although employers in at-will states like Florida have substantial leverages to terminate the employment of workers, numerous situations constitute wrongful termination.

  1. Full-Time Employment Sick Leave

Have it in mind that employers in the State are not obligated to provide sick leave under applicable labor laws, but they can offer it if they so choose. Most often, employers in the State are advised to have some sort of sick leave option for full-time employees to avoid the pressure of trying to work through an illness or having employees infect other staff members when contagious.

If an employer does not offer paid sick leave, an employee still reserves the right to take unpaid time off following federal laws to deal with personal or family illnesses and related matters.

Conclusion

Full-time employment in the State of Florida is noted as working at least 25 hours per week for the state. While this is often used for insurance reasons, a good number of firms in Florida consider employees to be full-time if they work more than 32 hours per week consistently.

Some other organizations evaluate full-time status based on business requirements, but most still consider an employee to be full-time if they work anywhere between 32 and 40 hours per week, or more frequently.